Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

DEBTORS COULD emerge from bankruptcy in less than five years under new legislation to be outlined by the Government within a fortnight.

The Cabinet has discussed whether the issue of mortgages should be incorporated into the Personal Insolvency Bill, which will significantly reduce the bankruptcy term from its current minimum of 12 years.

While publication of the Bill is a condition imposed by the EU and the IMF as part of the bailout package, Mr Shatter said he would nevertheless have tried to introduce it “in different economic circumstances”.

He said many of those who complained of being rendered insolvent “voluntarily placed themselves in positions . . . in which they raised money from banks and money that may have been very unwise to raise.

“Some individuals who now are trying to wash their hands of personal responsibility for borrowings at levels that were verging on the insane, deserve little sympathy”.

 

Bill will cut bankruptcy term for debtors to five years or less (Irish Times)

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THE STATE’S 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus is included in the list of State assets recommended for sale as part of the bailout agreed with the EU-IMF troika.

The list has been drawn up by an interdepartmental group which identified assets and commercial State companies that could be sold in addition to the minority stake in ESB, a sale already agreed with the EU Commission, ECB and IMF.

Other key assets which have been identified as suitable for sale include Dublin Port, which has been provisionally valued at €400 million, and parts of Bord Gáis and Coillte.

The report of the group, drawn from six Government departments, cautioned against the “fire sale” of any asset and also emphasised that the stake in Aer Lingus would have to be sold at the right time.

State could sell Aer Lingus, Dublin Port and Coillte stakes (Irish Times)

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An anonymous source tells the Daily NK, a South Korea-based publication in opposition of the North Korean regime, that “authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings” to mourn the death of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, and to those “who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.”

Newser reports that mourners who came off as insincere have already been sent to join the 200,000 other North Koreans already in labor camps. An Amnesty International report published in May 2011 paints a dark picture of what’s in store at those camps — estimates suggest that 40 percent of inmates die of malnutrition.

The exact number of those to be sent to camps is unclear, reports the Daily Mail, but the paper estimates it could be in the thousands.

North Korea To Punish Mourners Who Were Insincere (Huff Post)

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Above: City Mode on Middle Abbey Street; another space for let in the GPO Arcade; Home Store on Dublin’s Millenium Walkway and a trio of recent closures on Dublin’s Capel Street – Foodplus, Wolfes Irish Artisan Bistro and Excel furniture store.

According to figures from business intelligence analyst, Vision-net earlier this year, 1,930 Irish companies closed in 2011 – 160 companies every month.

(Photocall Ireland)

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has rejected charges that Ireland will need a second European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout because of fears that falling growth rates will threaten Ireland’s recovery.

During a day in London, Mr Kenny relentlessly drove home a positive message about Ireland’s future, but specifically moved to dismiss Citigroup’s chief economist Willem Buiter’s warning that Ireland should have a bailout “on stand-by”.

“We are in a programme, the programme lasts for the next two years. We are meeting all of the targets and all of our commitments,” Mr Kenny said, adding immediately afterwards, “I do not share the view at all in regard to a second bailout.”

Well, that’s OK then, isn’t it?

Kenny says Ireland will not need new bailout (Irish Times)

(Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA)

THE IRISH lack self-esteem despite a veneer of “garrulous sociability and self-deprecating twaddle”, according to the latest edition of the Lonely Planet which has just been published

The best-selling guide book says Irish people’s reputation for having an “easygoing, affable nature is justified”, but our reputation for friendliness is mostly a manifestation of our desire to chat – and our lack of self-esteem is our “dark secret”.

And it doesn’t end there:

Larne: ‘lacking in the charm department’
Letterkenny: ‘ruined by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger era’
Galway: “a very rainy city, even by Irish standards”
Derry: ‘not pretty”

Cork: “everything good about Ireland can be found in County Cork”.

Mmf.

Fatalistic, pessimistic Irish still worth a visit, says guide book (Irish Times)

THE OIREACHTAS spent more than €9,600 of taxpayers’ money on more than 200,000 customised Christmas cards that were distributed by TDs and Senators ahead of the recent festive season.

One of the perks Oireachtas members enjoy is the ability to avail of an “in-house” printing service allowing them to produce individualised cards they can send to constituents and others.

With well over half of TDs and Senators using the service, it appears that, in the age of Twitter and text messaging, old-fashioned Christmas cards remain attractive to politicians – despite the controversies they have given rise to in the past. An Oireachtas spokeswoman confirmed that 132 of the full 226 members of both houses had cards printed in-house, with a total of 217,020 cards produced at the end of last year.

Oireachtas Christmas cards cost taxpayers almost €10,000 (Irish Times)

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IRELAND CLEARLY needs further financial assistance on “non-market terms”, the chief economist with Citigroup, Willem Buiter, said during a visit to Dublin.

The former member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England said the most attractive option from Ireland’s point of view would be a reduction on the interest it pays on an outstanding €30 billion in promissory notes, issued mostly to deal with the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.

OR we could ‘restructure sovereign debt’, he suggested.

OR we could ‘revoke the government guarantee on bank debt’, he posited.

OR we could ‘consolidate all our monthly outgoings into one easy, manageable payment’, he might at least have added for the laugh.

State Needs Further Bailout, Says Bank Expert (Irish Times)

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MORE THAN half a million Irish people either cannot pay their bills or have nothing left to spend after meeting their monthly financial commitments, according to a survey published by the Irish League of Credit Unions today.

A further one million people have “very little” money to spend on anything other than essentials after bills are taken care of, the survey found.

The level of acute financial hardship being felt across the State is revealed in the league’s final “What’s Left” spending report of 2011.

Extrapolating from its survey of 1,000 consumers, the league found that 280,000 people or 8 per cent of the population say it is impossible to cover their bills each month, while 350,000 can pay their bills but have nothing left after doing so.

 

More than 50% of Consumers Struggling To Pay Bills On Time (Conor Pope, Irish Times)

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AN ANNOUNCEMENT by the Revenue Commissioners that 115,000 pensioners will have to pay extra taxes due to an under-calculation of their liabilities, will cause further hardship for older people, according to Age Action.

Affected pensioners will be issued letters from the Revenue Commissioners within the next week informing them that they are liable for extra taxes this year.

The tax bills will affect people who are in receipt of both a State pension and a secondary private pension or salary.
The underpayments came to light after the Department of Social Protection sent records pertaining to 560,000 pensioners to the Revenue Commissioners.

 

Revenue to inform 115,000 pensioners of extra tax liability (Irish Times)

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