Tag Archives: Irish Economy

A manager at bailed-out Permanent TSB got a €451,000 pay-off in the months immediately after the bank’s rescue by taxpayers last summer, the Irish Independent has learned.

He was among 300 workers at Permanent TSB who shared a pot of €28.7m since the bank’s €2.8bn rescue last summer.

The payoffs were part of a redundancy bonanza that paid out a total €56.8m to 701 individuals in banks after they were rescued. Fresh details emerged last night of the generous deals for staff at AIB, EBS, Permanent TSB, Anglo and Irish Nationwide.

 

Bank Jobs: Pressure On Noonan After €450,000 Payoff (Laura Noonan, Irish Independent)

The banks, predictably, have said that they will continue to argue the case against these proposed changes. Already, they are talking about the impact on their balance sheets. They will try to convince people that it is taxpayers’ money that would be used. Though I don’t recall hearing this when on Wednesday last we paid €1.25bn of taxpayers’ money to anonymous holders of unguaranteed bonds in a bank that doesn’t exist.

The next time you hear this line of argument from the banks, think of this: last year we gave four of our banks more than €7.5bn to address residential mortgages. AIB got €2.5bn of the €7.5bn. But its senior team admitted to us at a Finance Committee hearing that the total amount of mortgage debt it had written off was a mere €600,000. One 50th of one per cent of what we gave AIB. Bank of Ireland got €1.8bn of the €7.5bn. It told us it had forgone nothing, not one cent.

We have already given the banks the money to deal with this crisis. But they have decided to keep it. The result is a mortgage crisis which is growing so fast that it threatens our social and economic recovery. Every one of us in Dail Eireann was elected in part to take a stand against the banks that have destroyed our economy. It is time for more forceful action.

 

Why forceful Action Is Needed Against The Banks (Stephen Donnelly, Sunday Independent)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

 

Taken this morning at 66-67 Great Strand Street, Dublin 1.

From Unlock Nama:

Campaigners have temporarily occupied a NAMA-owned building in Dublin city centre to launch a new campaign that aims to lift the veil of secrecy from the controversial agency. A day of events and talks by academics and authors at the re-opened building from 12 noon on Saturday (January 28th, 2012) will focus on the “unmitigated failure” of NAMA and look at alternatives.
The Unlock NAMA campaign wants to make empty NAMA buildings available for social and community use, to reveal details of all NAMA properties and assets and to challenge the culture of debt.
“We want as many people as possible to drop in and participate in the discussion and in building an alternative approach to Nama and its assets. The damage that the financial system and property speculation have caused to our society is a problem for everyone to deal with – it’s not something we can leave to the accountants and bankers that make up Nama’s staff” said Thom McDermott.

 

UnlockNama.org

1) Hot Tub.

2) A block of five apartments ‘off the plans’ to be used as student accomodation in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (never built).

3) Bose hidden speaker system in the kitchen.

3) Six Graham Knuttels.

4) A bodhrán signed by all four members of the Corrs purchased during a charity ball run by a person who is probably now in prison.

5)  Dolce & Gabbana shirt, silver (never worn)

Please free to add your own.

Context

Alan Shatter and Michael Noonan at a press briefing this afternoon to announce the new rules, which are very, very Irish.

* People will be able to agree deals to write down mortgage debt as part of personal insolvency arrangements.

* However, such deals will require a majority of creditors such as banks to agree to deals on a case-by-case basis.

* These would be non-judicial settlement arrangements.

* The legislation would assist those in serious debt situations and help to ensure that, as far as possible, people would not lose their homes.

* People will either have to satisfy the courts or negotiate non-judicial arrangements between borrowers and lenders.

New Insolvency Rules To Cover Mortgages (RTE)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

“With no American ambassador in Iran the fate of Barbie is unknown. US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton appealed to the UN to provide planes to repatriate Barbie dolls… Angela Merkel wants to see significant cuts in Barbie’s spending habits before discussing the situation any further, while Silvio Berlusconi claimed there is always room for dollies in his house.”

The bored-out-his-mind Irish Life Investment Manager’s weekly round-up.

These are the guys in charge.

They are, indeed, drifting into the arena of the unwell.

Click here (before, you know, they take it down)

Thanks A

Debbie McDonnell writes:

I am with The Marketing Shop, one of more than 1000 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) that have become involved with  #SMEcommunity – the Twitter community of SMEs from across the island of Ireland.

This Friday we’re having a Tweet-Up and we’ve just confirmed a wonderful special guest – George Mordaunt, author of “Shepherd’s Pie”.

The venue has been provided free of charge courtesy of The County Arms Hotel, Birr, Co. Offaly – a location that businesses from across the island can reach. We would really be grateful if you could include a mention on Broadsheet as we’ve got a great cross-section of Irish SMEs attending and to date our local Tweet-Ups have proven enormously successful.

32 County Small Business #SMECommunity Tweet-up (Eventbrite)