Households continue to save an increasing share of their incomes, new figures show. In the third quarter of last year Irish households saved 16 per cent of total disposable income, according to Central Statistics Office data published yesterday, the Irish Times reported. The new figures, which have been adjusted for seasonal factors by statisticians for the first time, show that the savings rate in the third quarter was the second highest since figures were first compiled in 2002. High savings rates are a feature of economies which have suffered collapsed property prices.

A pent-up demand for bankruptcies in Ireland is expected to clog up the personal insolvency service when it is finally launched at the end of March, the Independent reported. Sources involved in the process say the demand for bankruptcy settlements is already building and dealing with these will take precedence over the other areas of the personal insolvency regime. "We expect to be dealing with bankruptcy cases for the first number of months. There is huge demand in this area, a lot of people waiting for the service to be launched," a source told the Irish Independent.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said he is supportive of Ireland finding a solution to the promissory notes issue, echoing comments by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy yesterday. In an interview with The Irish Times on the eve of today’s European Commission visit to Dublin, Mr Barroso said the commission was generally in favour of a deal, though he declined to comment on specific proposals, stressing it was in the remit of the European Central Bank.

The National Pension Fund is to invest in small businesses, announcing three new funds which will provide equity, credit and restructuring investment to Irish SMEs, the Irish Times reported. The NPRF will invest up to €500 million across new the funds which include an SME equity fund, an SME credit fund and an SME turnaround fund. The turnaround fund will invest in underperforming businesses which are at or close to the point of insolvency but have the potential for financial and operational restructuring, while the credit fund will lend to larger SMEs and mid-size corporates.

The Irish State’s prospects of exiting its international bailout “depend importantly on the delivery of European commitments”, the International Monetary Fund has said, the Irish Times reported. Stressing the fragility of Ireland’s position, the fund’s staff said that financial market doubts about the State’s capacity to repay its debt “could easily re-emerge”. It also said risks to economic growth in Ireland “have profound adverse implications for debt sustainability”.

Permanent TSB has promised to increase its personal lending targets fivefold in 2013 to €450 million, up from €90 million last year, the Irish Times reported. Group chief executive Jeremy Masding said the bank’s lending capacity in key product areas such as mortgages, personal loans and credit cards would all increase this year. The bank plans to lend €350 million in mortgages, €100 million in personal lending, including car loans, and €5 million in new credit card finance.

Irish home values rose at the fastest pace in more than six years in November as the country recovered from Europe's worst real estate crash, Bloomberg News reported today. Residential property prices rose 1.1 percent from the previous month, the most since September 2006, the Central Statistics Office said in a statement today. Values fell 5.7 percent from a year earlier and are 49 percent below their 2007 peak, the statement showed. Read more.

Ireland expects to return fully to bond markets late next year but needs a deal on easing its bank debt to make sure it can successfully exit its international bailout, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, the Irish Times reported. Speaking days before Ireland takes over the six-month EU presidency, Mr Kenny told Reuters he was confident an easing of repayment terms on the promissory notes that Ireland pumped mainly into the failed Anglo Irish Bank would be agreed by a March deadline.

Legislation on personal insolvency, which passed through the Dáil and Seanad today, is “the most radical and comprehensive reform of our insolvency and bankruptcy law and practice since the foundation of the State”, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said, the Irish Times reported. The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012 will now be presented to President Michael D Higgins for signature. Mr Shatter warned banks and their public interest directors they will have to accept when a debt cannot be repaid, under the new law.

If European leaders expect Enda Kenny to set aside his awkward disputes with the international creditors funding Dublin’s €67.5bn bailout during his six months at the helm of the EU’s rotating presidency, the Irish prime minister has a message: he is not going to go quiet, the Financial Times reported. Ireland next year could become the first of the eurozone’s five bailout countries to emerge from a rescue programme if all goes according to schedule.