Tag Archives: Michael Noonan


Seriously jarring stuff from NAMA Wine Lake:

Is it time to demand the Minister come to the Dail and make a statement justifying what now seems a bewilderingly stupid action, which has the potential to strand this country without feasible funding sources in 2014 unless this forthcoming referendum is passed? The July 2011 ESM Treaty made access dependent on fiscal discipline, but the Fiscal Compact now being put to the country goes far further in handing over sovereignty and control of our national finances to a Europe which, in recent times, has not shown itself to be particularly sympathetic to the domestic economic problems of this country. Maybe on 2nd February, 2012 Minister Noonan thought a referendum on the Fiscal Compact would not be necessary and that ratification of the Compact was a done deal. That would have shown serious contempt for the deliberations of the Attorney General, and would also have been incompetent. The Minister now has very serious questions to answer.

READ: What did Michael Noonan get in return for an agreement which may leave this country stranded without practical funding options from 2013? (NAMA Wine Lake)

pic/GETTY images

Badum…

THE TAOISEACH has said the problem with Ireland’s economy was that “people went mad borrowing” in a system that spawned greed, went out of control and crashed.

Speaking during a discussion on rebuilding Europe at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Enda Kenny said: “The extent of personal credit, personal wealth created on credit, was done between people and banks – a system that spawned greed to a point where it just went out of control completely with a spectacular crash.”

Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said there was a “stark contrast” between the Taoiseach’s comments yesterday and those in his address to the nation last month, “when he told the public that ‘it’s not your fault’ for the crisis”.

…and tish!

When asked about Mr Kenny’s comments last night, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said: “I didn’t hear his comment. I’m not going to comment on something I didn’t hear.” After a recording of some of Mr Kenny’s comments was played for him, he said: “I’m not going to comment. Ministers don’t go around the place commenting on the Taoiseach’s remarks.”

Taoiseach Blames Crisis On ‘Mad Borrowing’ And Greed (Irish Times)

Enda: “You Are Not Responsible.” (Broadsheet, December 4, 2011)

Opposition slam Kenny over Davos comments (RTE)

Yesterday: Enda At Davos: The Digital Hub Taoiseach

Screengrab

MINISTER FOR Finance Michael Noonan has sought to clarify a remark on emigration being a lifestyle choice after a torrent of criticism from Opposition parties.

Mr Noonan, speaking at the press conference on the troika’s latest review of the bailout programme, described emigration as “a free choice of lifestyle” and said there were young people constantly leaving and returning to Ireland.

He gave the example of three of his grown-up children, all of whom were living outside Ireland by choice. “It’s not being driven by unemployment at home, it’s being driven by a desire to see another part of the world and live there,” he said.

The comments received heavy criticism from Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. Both parties described them as insensitive and an insult to the thousands of young people who had been forced to leave.

The remarks were compared to those made by former Fianna Fáil tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who was lambasted in 2008 for describing emigration as “not a bad thing” for some young people.

Oh dear.

Noonan criticised for remarks about young emigrants (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s forecast for faster economic growth this year may prove too optimistic, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

Gross domestic product will rise by 1 percent in 2012, according to the median estimate of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Last month, Noonan forecast expansion of 1.3 percent, quickening from an estimated 1 percent last year.

“The most worrying impact of the debt crisis on the Irish economy will be through reduced export demand,” said Conall Mac Coille, an economist at Dublin-based securities firm Davy. “It’s likely to have a significant impact.”

The euro-region’s economy will shrink 1 percent this year, as Europe’s leaders struggle to end the region’s debt deadlock, according to economists at HSBC Holdings Plc led by Janet Henry. Exports of everything from Kerry Group Plc dairy products to Kingspan Group Plc (KSP) insulation amounted to about 101 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product in 2010.

“It looks like the euro zone is heading for a recession,” said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. “Given what is going on in the world as a whole, the risks are to the downside.”

…Noonan aims to reduce the country’s budget deficit to 8.6 percent of GDP this year from an estimated 10 percent in 2011. Exchequer returns for last year are due for release at 4:30 p.m. in Dublin today.

“What Ireland is doing is necessary but not sufficient for its recovery,” said Austin Hughes, chief economist at KBC Bank Ireland. (KBC) “It can’t be sufficient because that is going to be determined by events outside our control.”

 

Irish Growth To Fall Short Of Noonan’s Forecast, Economists Say (Finbarr Flynn, Bloomberg)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)