Firms earn €80m from handling bailouts

A golden circle of a dozen or so large firms have an effective monopoly on handling EU bailouts and use them to their advantage, according to an investigation by international journalists.

They said financial consultants were paid well over €80m for their work on estimating the sums of money needed by the bailout countries, including Ireland, over the past few years.

The number of globally recognised accountancy firms, lawyers, and financial consultants are so few and so large that there are many conflicts of interest