The Government faces demands from the troika to accept tough fiscal policy conditions in return for an emergency credit line to guard against any loss of market confidence in the wake of the bailout, the Irish Times reported. With only seven weeks to go before Ireland’s official exit from the EU-International Monetary Fund bailout, there is no consensus in the troika or among European leaders as to whether the Coalition should seek a precautionary loan programme.

Siac Construction, one of Ireland’s largest construction groups, is expected to seek the protection of the courts this week, possibly as early as today, as losses in Poland threaten the 100-year-old business, the IrishTimes reported. It is expected the application to the courts will be supported by the group’s main lenders, Bank of Ireland, KBC and Bank of Scotland Ireland. The Siac group has operations in Ireland, Britain, Belgium, Canada and Poland and has approximately 560 employees. Efforts to get a comment from the group last night were unsuccessful.

Aer Lingus has told the trustees of its staff pension scheme that it will not make an additional financial contribution to tackle a deficit of nearly €800 million, the Irish Times reported. Last summer the company told the markets a proposal put forward by the Labour Court that would have involved it investing about €140 million, could form the basis of an agreement for dealing with the estimated €780 million deficit in the Irish Airlines (General Employees) Superannuation Scheme (IASS). However, the Pensions Board subsequently raised concerns about the Labour Court proposal.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has insisted the door has not been shut on the State’s hopes of the ESM providing funds to directly recapitalise the Irish banks, the Irish Times reported. German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble yesterday said retroactive direct recapitalisation for Ireland was “not probable” and he did not “see any necessity” for such a measure as Ireland was doing very well.

The wind down of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation is currently in full swing with the process of offering corporate loans for sale now under way. Most are being sold via portfolios but about 30 or 40 loans will be transacted on their own. Retailer Arnotts, broadcaster TV3 and fuel group Topaz are among those likely to be treated in this fashion, the reported. The alternative is to have the loans transferred to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and no business wants that.

Anglo Irish Bank and its successor Irish Bank Resolution Corporation overcharged customers by an estimated $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) and continued to overcharge since the Government liquidated the bank in February, a forensic banking specialist has claimed in a US court, the Irish Times reported. The expert witness made the claim in a legal challenge taken against IBRC’s application for bankruptcy protection in a court in Delaware by developer John Flynn and related parties who claim they were overcharged $11 million on loans of about $200 million with the bank.

Ireland’s corporate tax regime and the Government’s claim for further bank aid from Europe has been sucked into talks on the formation of the next German government, the Irish Times reported. In discussions with German chancellor Angela Merkel, the opposition Social Democratic party has set its face against using the ESM permanent bailout fund to provide capital directly to Irish banks.

Dublin has won approval from its bailout masters to ease back on €3.1bn in planned austerity measures in its 2014 budget as long as it meets existing deficit targets in its programme, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission said on Tuesday that Ireland’s latest plan to implement €2.5bn in tax rises and spending cuts next year, rather than €3.1bn originally agreed with Ireland’s international lenders, “provided a sound basis for taking forward the necessary consolidation”.

Bankrupt developer Seán Dunne has suffered a setback in the US courts after being ordered by a judge to attend court, answer questions and provide all information requested by the trustee managing his case in Connecticut, the Irish Times reported. In an order issued yesterday, bankruptcy judge Alan Shiff said Mr Dunne must “completely answer all questions posted by the trustee and turn over all documents requested by the trustee without limitation or qualification”.

The Central Bank of Ireland has urged the Government to push ahead with €3.1 billion of cuts and tax hikes in this month’s budget, warning any scaling back of the planned fiscal adjustment “runs the risk of starting to unwind the positive effects” of the considerable consolidation effort to date, the Irish Times reported. In its latest quarterly bulletin, the Central Bank said there was no point in putting at risk the hard-won gains of the past several years for the sake of “a relatively small short-term fiscal easing”.