Germany sympathises most with ‘poster state’

Securing a deal on Ireland’s €64bn bank debt is crucial to exiting the EU/IMF bailout programme. There are two strands to the negotiations. There are roughly €34bn in promissory notes covering losses in Anglo and Irish Nationwide. Under this set up, the Government is scheduled to pay €3.1bn every March until 2030. It is in talks to roll these promissory notes into a long-dated bond and is also trying to get relief on the €30bn used to bail out the pillar banks. Ireland needs support from the EU powerbrokers. But there is an election in Germany this year, where there is growing opposition to fiscal transfers. The Irish Examiner asks a range of German journalists and economists what they think of Ireland’s requests for bank debt relief

It was a brief, but telling message that Angela Merkel had for the squeezed Irish people a few weeks ago.

“Thank you, Ireland, for going down this path. It makes us all stronger,” she said after a meeting in Berlin with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.