Central Bank warns also of major economic slowdown, sterling crisis

Britain crashing out of the EU in October will lead to a dramatic Irish economic slowdown and force households to cut back on spending, result in 34,000 fewer jobs and lower wages and shortages of consumer goods, as well as a potential full-blown sterling crisis and a big hit to rural Ireland and its agriculture and food processing jobs, the Central Bank has warned.

The lending activity of Irish banks and access to credit for consumers and SMEs are unlikely to be adversely affected even in a worst-case Brexit scenario, the Central Bank has said.

A no-deal Brexit would immediately weigh heavily on Irish economic growth and see sterling depreciate by around 10% against the euro, the Central Bank has warned.

The Government could have done more to build up buffers for the hard times but this week’s budget was “balanced” that hadn’t fuelled demand in a fast-growing economy.

The Central Bank has said that the economy is set for continued strong growth, with no immediate signs of overheating, but has warned the housing crisis will remain a critical issue for some time.

House prices, which are expected to rise by a further 10% this year, are “not currently overvalued”, according to the Central Bank.

A serving soldier who drove the getaway car in a bomb attack in Donegal has been jailed for a total of six years.

On his first forest rally in some three years Donegal’s Donagh Kelly, driving the McGeehan Motorsport Mini WRC, won the Samdec Security Lakeland Forest Rally in Enniskillen.

A member of the Defence Forces appeared in court last night on explosives charges.

There’s a cracking Phil Liggett line from the 1989 World Championships in France when the ITV anchor turns to his American counterpart Brian Malessa and said: “Brian, I think Sean Kelly told Fignon in broad Irish exactly what he thought of that idea,” after Fignon gestured for the Irishman to go to the front of the chase group to catch leader Steve Bauer.

MATT BRAMMEIER (HTC Highroad) completed a remarkable weekend when he reclaimed the elite road race championship title yesterday while also taking the national time-trial crown on Friday night at Emyvale, Monaghan.

RACE LEADER Gediminas Bagdonas (Belgium An Post/Sean Kelly) thanked Irish team-mate Sam Bennett for helping him hang on to the yellow jersey by the slender margin of 32 seconds as the sixth stage of the An Post Rás ended in Tramore yesterday after an action-packed 104-mile trip from Blarney.

An Post Sean Kelly team manager Kurt Bogaerts today named his team for the 59th edition of the Rás, which starts in Dunboyne this Sunday.

DEFENDING champion Nicolas Roche, his cousin Daniel Martin who won the title a couple of years ago, three-time winner David O’Loughlin and another former winner, David McCann will line up for the national road race championships in Sligo tomorrow.

ALEXANDER WETTERHALL (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) left many of the big names scratching their heads in wonderment after he built on his midweek escape to claim overall victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which concluded before a huge crowd that turned out in glorious sunshine in Skerries yesterday.

Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) left many of the big names scratching their heads in wonderment after he built on his midweek escape to claim overall victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which concluded before a huge crowd that turned out in glorious sunshine in Skerries today.

Irish rider Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) realised a childhood dream today in Kilcullen when he won the penultimate stage seven of this year's FBD Insurance Rás.

ALEXANDER WETTERHALL (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) hung on to the race leader’s yellow jersey by six seconds as Jon Tiernan-Locke (Britian Rapha Condor Sharp) powered his way to victory at the top of Seskin Hill where a huge crowd gathered to welcome yesterday’s fifth stage of the FBD Insurance Rás.

Jon Tiernan-Locke of the Rapha Condor Sharp team won today’s fifth stage of the FBD Insurance Rás from Tipperary Town to Seskin Hill, Carrick-on-Suir.

CHRIS NEWTON, one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists, has a treasure chest of Olympic and world championship medals but would still love to add his name to the list of FBD Insurance Rás legends who have won the title three times or more.

With the An Post Sean Kelly cycling team announced yesterday for this Sunday's FBD Insurance Rás, breakingnews.ie has compiled a short history of the cycling team in the lead up to the tournament.

MARK CASSIDY was little more than an interested spectator when he stood alongside his mother in Drogheda to watch his father, Philip, don the coveted race leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the penultimate stage of the 1999 FBD Insurance Rás.

The An Post Sean Kelly cycling team has today announced its team for this years FBD Insurance Rás which starts this Sunday in Dunboyne.

The cycling team which bears the name of Irish cycling legend Seán Kelly has outlined an ambitious list of targets for the coming season and revealed that they are upping a gear in a bid to land success.

Mark Cavenish enjoyed a stunning victory in the second stage of the Tour of Ireland from Clonmel to Killarney today.

A FORMER rider in standard-issue team colours with neat red hair pinned down under designer shades, Kurt Bogaerts doesn’t really look it – but he drives like Evel Knievel late for Mass.

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN (An Post/Sean Kelly) attempts to win the Elite road race championship for a fourth time at Dunboyne on Sunday.

CHRIS NEWTON has the opportunity to join the legends of cycling over the coming week by winning the FBD Insurance Rás for a third time and John Herety, manager of the British Rapha Condor team, admitted on the eve of Irish cycling’s showpiece that the former world champion and three-time Olympic medallist has that as his ambition.

The An Post Sean Kelly Team is back on home soil for the first time this year ahead of this weekend’s FBD Rás, which gets underway in Kilcullen, Co. Wicklow on Sunday.

TWO of Ireland’s leading hopes for the FBD Insurance Rás, Brian Kenneally and Paul Griffin, have been out of sorts recently but expect to go to the line in Kilcullen for Sunday’s opening stage to Wexford town with all guns blazing.

BRIAN KENNEALLY goes to the line for today’s opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in Killorglin with his sights firmly set on a third victory in the race.

JUST a week after winning the coveted Route du Sud in the Pyrenees, Daniel Martin returned to Ireland to claim the shamrock jersey of the national champion with another power-packed display on the Ballinacurra circuit, near Midleton, yesterday.

WITH three of Ireland’s four Olympic cyclists in the field, Sunday’s national road race championships in Midleton promise to be the most competitive in recent years.

STEPHEN GALLAGHER (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly/ Grant Thornton) won the overall title and the national road race champion, David O’Loughlin (Pezula Racing), won the high-profile final stage of the FBD Insurance Rás in Skerries yesterday as Irish riders reclaimed control of Irish cycling’s showpiece.

CIARÁN POWER (Pezula Racing) put five days of misery behind him to win the stage and put himself right up in contention for what would be a sensational third FBD Milk Rás victory at the end of a 112 mile trip from Skibbereen to Clonmel that wrought havoc at the top of the general classification sheet where Simon Richardson (Plowman Craven) now holds the overall lead and former race leader, Stephen Gallagher (An Post/Sean Kelly), moves back up to within 10 seconds of reclaiming pole position.

DAVID McCANN (Ireland National Team) just can’t wait for tomorrow’s penultimate stage which takes the FBD Insurance Rás high into the Wicklow Mountains where he feels the destination of the overall title will be decided.

JOY can quickly turn to disappointment for any cyclist but for Mark Cassidy it was heart rending yesterday when a crash on the outskirts of Limerick City stripped him of the yellow jersey and put his FBD Insurance Rás hopes on hold for another year.

EXACTLY 25 years and a day after his father, Philip, claimed his first yellow jersey in the FBD Insurance Rás, Mark Cassidy donned the yellow fleece for the first time in Lisdoonvarna after yesterday’s dramatic stage from Claremorris.

STEPHEN GALLAGHER (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly) set out from Ballinamore yesterday morning hoping for a stage win, but by last night he had introduced an exciting new dimension to this year’s FBD Insurance Rás by claiming the race leader’s yellow jersey in a three-man sprint into Claremorris.

CIARAN POWER (Pezula) would like to take his place among the legends of Irish cycling next week by winning the FBD Insurance Rás for the third time.

THE organiser of the FBD Insurance Rás has had to turn down a request from the Italian Cycling Federation to have their Olympic track team included in the line-up for this year’s showpiece which gets under way on Sunday week.

CIARAN POWER (Pezula Racing) put his hallmark on a spectacular weekend when he won the final stage of the Pauline Sugrue Auctioneers Rás Mumhan, to copperfasten his overall victory in blustery conditions at Killorglin yesterday.