Ireland

New statistics released by InsolvencyJournal.ie show that 5 companies went out of business per day in February 2011. There was a 59% increase on the January figures with 153 companies going bust, compared to 96 in January. This is the second highest monthly total InsolvencyJournal.ie has recorded in its history (156 being the highest for December 2009.) Commenting on the figures, Ken Fennell, partner with kavanaghfennell, the firm who compile the data, said, “Although this month’s figures are high, they are in line with the rate of insolvencies for the same month last year.

Billionaire financier George Soros says the incoming government has a “legitimate” claim to impose bailout losses on senior bank bondholders and warns Ireland could be “dragged down” for years by Europe’s no-default policy, the Irish Times reported. Fine Gael and Labour each pledged during the election campaign to tackle senior bond investors. However, as they embarked on coalition talks, EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn ruled out any move in that direction.

The Department of Finance provided repeated warnings to the Government about the risks involved in running pro-cyclical budgetary policy during the boom years, a report has revealed, the Irish Times reported. However the report, drafted by a team commissioned to investigate the department’s performance over the past 10 years, criticised it for not altering the tone of its warnings as they were ignored in successive budgets. The report adds that the department also warned about the dangers of an overheated construction sector.

The European Commission has ruled out any move by the incoming government to compel senior bondholders to bear losses on their investments in Ireland’s banks, the Irish Times reported. Although Fine Gael and Labour each pledged during the election they would impose losses on the holders of senior bank debt, economics commissioner Olli Rehn made it clear yesterday such a manoeuvre would not find support in Europe. The stance of the commissioner, who did not elaborate, was in line with the European Central Bank’s opposition to any default on senior bank bonds.

The National Asset Management Agency imposed no haircut on AIB’s loan on the Montevetro building in Dublin as the loan was provided after the Government announced plans for the agency, the Irish Times reported. AIB lent about €30 million to the developer of the building, Real Estate Opportunities, in which Treasury Holdings is a major shareholder, after April 2009 when Nama was unveiled. No discounts were imposed on development loans provided after April 2009 following an agreement between the banks and Central Bank governor John Hurley.

Ireland's main opposition party, Fine Gael, won a clear victory in Friday's election, setting Dublin on course for a showdown with the European Union over the terms of its €67.5 billion ($92.83 billion) international bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported. Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael leader widely expected to become prime minister, said Saturday that the bailout was "a bad deal for Ireland and a bad deal for Europe" and added: "We are not going to cry the poor mouth, other than to say the reality of this challenge is too much." Mr.

Anglo Irish Bank has said for the first time that it is likely to object formally to David Drumm’s debt to the bank being written off by a Boston court, the Irish Times reported. The disclosure is made in the bank’s latest filing to the US court in the bankruptcy proceedings being taken by its former chief executive. To succeed in preventing Mr Drumm’s debt to Anglo being written off, it will have to demonstrate to the court that he has acted in bad faith.

Europe's debt crisis is set to claim its first political scalp on Friday in an Irish election dominated by the trauma of economic collapse and the harsh path back to financial stability, the International Herald Tribune reported. Irish voters are in a vicious mood over the bursting of a property bubble that has left them steeped in debt and facing years of austerity to repay the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for an 85 billion euros bailout.

Holders of Eircom’s senior debt have appointed restructuring experts Houlihan Lokey as advisers as they prepare to negotiate with the troubled telecommunications company about billions of euro of outstanding debt, the Irish Times reported. The mounting pressure on Eircom to find a solution to its debt crisis comes as crunch talks on the future of the former State company take place in Dublin this week.

The Sunday Tribune, the Irish quality newspaper partly owned by Independent Newspapers, has closed, less than a month after a receiver was appointed, The Guardian reported. Jim Luby, the receiver, wrote to the 43 staff on Tuesday telling them they would be made redundant at the end of the month. It brings to an end a chequered 31-year history for a paper that attempted to inject new life into a newspaper sector dominated by two traditional Irish papers, the Sunday Independent and the Sunday Press.