Ireland

Ireland's government must detail Wednesday tough spending cuts and tax increases in its budget for 2013 which could strain the public's grudging acceptance of the austerity imposed by an international bailout, as the country continues to wrestle with its worst-ever debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since the property market collapsed in 2008 bringing down the country's banking sector, Ireland has brought in €25 billion ($32 billion) in austerity measures, and each successive budget forces increasingly painful choices.

Ireland's new insolvency regime may push losses at participating banks higher in the short term but the laws are an important part of resolving the crisis in the sector, the central bank said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In response to growing arrears among homeowners and outdated bankruptcy laws, Ireland has proposed new non-judicial routes for struggling mortgage holders to settle both unsecured and secured debts of up to 3 million euros ($3.9 million). The new laws are being passed through parliament and set to be introduced early next year.

Former subordinated bondholders in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks are seeking recompense for being forced to take just one cent for every EUR1,000 of such bonds they held, Reuters reported today. This follows hedge fund Assenagon's successful suit in the English High Court against Anglo Irish Bank in July for executing similar coercive actions.

Indebted Irish publisher Independent News & Media plans to ask its lenders to write off up to 100 million euros ($127 million) of debt as part of a wider overhaul, Britain's Sunday Times reported. The company on Friday said it will need urgent and substantial restructuring in response to high levels of debt and tough trading. A spokesman on Sunday declined to comment on the report that the company was seeking to write off debt. The publisher hopes to secure agreement on the debt write-off with a consortium of eight banks by early next year, the newspaper reported without citing sources.

Mortgage misery will be eased for thousands next month, but only if the banks play ball, the Irish Times reported in a commentary. This week, the most important piece of legislation to come from this Government reaches report stage in Dail Eireann. It will then do one more lap of the Oireachtas before being passed into law next month. Minister Shatter's intention for the Personal Insolvency Bill is admirable, but its success requires a fundamental shift from the banks in how they deal with borrowers. The Bill provides three legal mechanisms.

Lending to Irish households and businesses fell in the year to the end of September and the European Central Bank has said it expects access to funds to tighten further in the coming months, the Irish Times reported. Figures released by the Central Bank of Ireland yesterday show that loans to Irish households were 3.7 per cent lower in the 12 months to September 30th. The monthly rate of decline was unchanged in September, with an €88 million fall in lending during the month.

Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble is confident that Ireland can exit its current troika-funded bailout programme at the end of 2013, the Irish Times reported. “I am totally confident that Ireland is on track ,” Mr Schäuble said in Dublin yesterday. “No problem at all. I am confident 100 per cent.” He cited the International Monetary Fund’s latest quarterly report earlier this month, which showed that Ireland continues to meet the terms of the bailout programme.

An average of almost seven Irish companies went bust every day from October 1-25, according to the latest figures from the credit risk analysis firm Vision-net, the Irish Examiner reported. Vision-net’s figures, covering the period between October 1 and 25, show that 168 companies were declared insolvent - up 39% on the same month last year. Of those, 110 were liquidated, 54 entered receivership, and an examiner was appointed to four companies.

Four out of five Supreme Court judges have found the High Court was entitled to jail Seán Quinn jnr for three months over “outrageous” contempt of court orders restraining the stripping of assets from the Quinn’s international property group, the Irish Times reported.

Investors in two European property funds at the failed investment firm Custom House Capital have been told that winding up the company behind the funds is the cheapest way to recover more than a third of their money on one fund and a fifth on the other.Accountants appointed to manage the properties by the Central Bank last year have recommended investors vote to wind up Custom House Capital Investment Property Funds plc in a ballot by a deadline of November 9th.