Government plan aims to ensure country’s financial survival
The impetus for the plan is the cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. Ireland paid an initial €31 billion to save the two lenders, averting what Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan called a “European Lehmans” in a nod to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
To cut the final bill of at least €48bn, including interest, Finance Minister Michael Noonan may seek to exploit the eurozone’s debt crisis by tapping the area’s expanding rescue fund. That would deliver money at lower interest rates and over a longer period than selling bonds, reducing what Noonan has called the “extraordinarily expensive” tab as Ireland seeks to win back economic sovereignty.
