Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar yesterday called on all parties to accept what he called the “best and last” opportunity to resolve a €750 million pensions row that has several times threatened to halt air travel in or out of the Republic, the Irish Times reported. Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have been locked in a dispute with unions for several years over the insolvent Irish Airlines’ Superannuation Scheme, which has an estimated deficit of €750 million. The dispute almost closed the Republic’s main airports on St Patrick’s weekend.

Anthony O’Reilly, Ireland’s first billionaire and the former chief executive and chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company, has been declared insolvent, and on Friday he was ordered to sell his assets immediately to repay loans to one bank exceeding $30 million, the International New York Times reported. A Dublin judge rejected pleas from Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyers for a six-month postponement. Legal experts believe that the ruling is likely to prompt claims by other creditors, who are owed an estimated $266 million in total. Mr.

The Bank of England has imposed limits on household borrowing for the first time since 1980 in a bid to stop a credit boom emerging amid surging house prices, the Irish Times reported. The restrictions on large loans imposed by the bank’s financial policy committee will not affect current lending, but it will seek to prevent lending from taking off as the UK economy recovers. The central bank expects house prices to rise a further 20 per cent.

A number of likely suitors have signalled their interest in building materials manufacturer Dan Morrissey, which is under High Court protection from its creditors, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday confirmed the appointment of Brian McEnery of BDO as examiner to Carlow-based quarry operator and manufacturer Dan Morrissey Irl Ltd, giving him up to three months to save the business, which owes AIB €26 million.

Britain will allow more heavily regulated retail banks to offer business customers products such as options and trade finance, according to final legislative proposals. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the UK adopted proposals to separate the retail and investment arms of British banks and erect a “ringfence” around the retail bank so its essential operations continue even if the whole bank fails. If a bank does not respect the ring fence, regulators will have the power to break it up, the Financial Times reported.

Like its rivals in Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland has been unable to escape criticism from shareholders over the amount of compensation that bankers are paid, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Earlier this year, United Kingdom Financial Investments, which oversees the British government’s 81 percent stake in the bank, forced R.B.S. to drop a proposal to pay bankers bonuses of up to two times their annual salaries.

Germany’s top central banker has warned the European Central Bank against buying securitised debt, saying that such a move could turn it into the bad bank of Europe, the Irish Times reported. “The revival of the securitisation market is not a primary task of monetary policy,” European Central Bank policymaker and Deutsche Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann told an audience in Halle in eastern Germany.

A federal appeals court in Chicago said auditor Grant Thornton LLP must again face a lawsuit over its alleged role in the collapse of Italian dairy company Parmalat SpA, while lamenting that its decision puts the nearly 10-year-old case on the brink of starting anew, Reuters reported. Wednesday's decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an April 2013 dismissal of the case by U.S. District Judge John Darrah in Chicago. The appeals court ordered that the case be moved to a state court in Cook County, which includes Chicago, where Grant Thornton is based.

Romanian President Traian Basescu signed into law the new Insolvency Code. The legal framework establishing the new preemptive and insolvency procedures was attacked in Constitutional Court on Aprill 22 by a group of PNL deputies who argued that the bill goes against free access to justice and the right to property, Business Review reported. On May 21st, the Constitutional Court established that the bill is in fact constitutional.

It sounds like an offer too good to refuse: nearly unlimited loans at an annual interest rate of only 0.25 percent. Borrow $1 million for four years, and the interest per year would be barely a rounding error: $2,500. That is effectively the offer the European Central Bank, as part of its ambitious new effort to revive the euro zone’s economies, has just made to commercial banks, the International New York Times reported. Yet it is by no means certain that banks will want that cheap money, and that could defeat the purpose of the program.