Downturn knocks 4,000 off millionaires’ row

FOUR thousand of Ireland’s big earners were knocked off millionaires’ row last year, one of the world’s biggest finance houses revealed yesterday.

At the end of 2008, there were 16,300 people with assets and savings worth more than $1 million (€717,881) – a massive drop of a fifth on a year earlier.

The latest World Wealth Report by financial giant Merrill Lynch and consultancy firm Capgemini found Ireland’s millionaire class has shrunk two years in a row.