Sorry Arnotts saga mirrors the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger

THE State is getting into the retail shopkeeping business, selling bras and knickers, shoes and shirts, beds, chairs and tables, pots and pans, televisions and games consoles, luggage and lots else too.

There’s plenty else for sale at Arnotts too but let’s hope that the shop itself can be sold because the idea of the State owning and running this business is a sure sign of how wrecked our economy has become.

But that’s essentially the outcome of the news this week that two banks have taken control of the iconic Dublin retail department store. One of those banks is British-owned Ulster Bank but Anglo Irish Bank is already a shareholder in Arnotts and has the larger amount of loans owning to it for repayment. As the existing shareholders are going to be wiped out it is essentially Anglo — as the new majority owner — that will call the shots, albeit with advice and prodding from Ulster.