The National Asset Management Agency has taken a fresh legal challenge against property developer Sean Dunne in a bid to stop him walking away from debts of more than €700 million in the United States, the Irish Times reported. The State loans agency, which has a judgment debt of €185 million against Mr Dunne, filed a legal complaint within Mr Dunne’s US bankruptcy proceedings in a Connecticut court seeking to block his discharge from bankruptcy, which would prevent him embarking debt-free on a fresh financial start.

Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said today that he expects there will be repossessions by Irish banks of buy-to-let properties that are in arrears with their mortgages but hopes there will be “very few” of owner-occupied family homes, the Irish Times reported. Mr Honohan also expressed his preference for split mortgages - whereby part of the loan is warehoused for a period of time without repayments being made - over interest-only repayment solutions as the country seeks to tackle the crisis of home loan arrears that has built up in the banking system.

Dublin is facing fresh calls to hold a public inquiry into its banking crash following the broadcast of a phone call between senior executives at Anglo Irish Bank, which suggests the bank deliberately misled regulators as it sought help during the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The taped conversation between Anglo Irish executives John Bowe, head of capital markets, and Peter Fitzgerald director of retail banking, took place three days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

Ireland’s low tax revenue compared to peer countries is accounted for by relatively low levels of tax paid by those at the lower end of the income spectrum, according to a study published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Irish Times reported. Those on higher incomes in Ireland pay proportionately similar amounts of tax to their better-off counterparts in high-tax countries such as Germany and the Nordics.

Less than a year before European leaders hope to chalk up success for their handling of the sovereign debt crises in Ireland and Portugal, rising bond yields and long-term interest rates are causing concern over how the two countries will exit their bailout programmes, the Financial Times reported. Amid expectations that central banks in the US, Japan and elsewhere will tighten monetary policy, yields on Portugal’s benchmark 10-year bonds surged to 6.6 per cent last week from a low of 5.2 per cent in late May.

The International Monetary Fund has said Ireland is on track with the conditions of its bailout programme, the Irish Times reported. The IMF, one of a trio of lenders overseeing Dublin’s €85 billion bailout, said Ireland’s economy grew modestly in 2012 for the second year in a row and employment during the first quarter of this year was up 1 per cent from the same period a year ago. The IMF’s board approved the tenth disbursal of about $1.27 billion, bringing to $27.79 billion the total funds that Ireland has received from the IMF so far.

The discord between Ryanair and Aer Lingus is the latest in a series of problems facing large companies to focus shareholders on the growing pension deficit problem in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Aer Lingus, and others, made generous pension promises to employees without putting enough money aside to meet these obligations. Ryanair, as a significant shareholder of Aer Lingus, has warned that it will resist attempts to pass the shortfall onto shareholders. UK independent pension consultant John Ralfe believes pension deficits are a concern.

Galway hotelier and developer Michael Finn and his wife Claire, who are being pursued by the National Asset Management Agency for €108 million, have invested €600,000 in companies operating a high-end car resale business and transferred shares in their family home to their children, the agency has claimed at the Commercial Court, the Irish Times reported. The agency is seeking a €108 million summary judgment orders against the couple who, it alleges, have failed to use funds available to them to reduce their liabilities to it.

HMV-owner Hilco bought Ireland's largest film and computer game rental retailer Xtra-Vision on Tuesday, potentially saving close to 1,000 jobs after the firm sought protection from its creditors in April, Reuters reported. Restructuring specialist Hilco, which rescued Britain's most high-profile entertainment retailer HMV earlier this year, said it hoped it would be able to keep Xtra-vision's remaining 132 stores open following negotiations with landlords.

The Government has nominated six county registrars for appointment as specialist judges of the Circuit Court, creating a new cadre of judges in a move that has been sharply criticised by the judiciary, the Irish Times reported. The role of specialist judge was created under the Personal Insolvency Act to allow the Circuit Court to deal quickly with insolvency applications.