EU poised to offer huge loans

THE EU appears poised to offer Ireland massive loans the country could not raise from the markets to solve it’s banking crisis.

The move has been triggered by long-term concerns for the country’s two main banks, Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland. Their immediate problem is that the ECB is phasing out providing money for the eurozone banks in the new year as the economic recovery sets in throughout most of Europe.

But the cutback could sound the death knell for Irish banks almost totally reliant on ECB money, because they have problems borrowing at an affordable rate on markets, and the state cannot afford to lend them any more money.