Tag: Ireland

SPECIAL REPORT / EU education ministers met in Brussels last Friday to debate how new online tools can benefit the unemployed, with a specific focus on struggling Mediterranean countries. Meanwhile, a new initiative, the Academy Cube, seeks to bring together all stakeholders on one online platform to retrain unemployed people with e-skills for future ICT jobs.

The future of Europe’s agriculture policy shouldn’t be held hostage by the EU’s budget impasse, Ireland’s agricultural minister said in calling for negotiations to move forward even if final figures on spending are unknown until spring.

Ireland holds the only popular vote on Europe's new fiscal treaty today (31 May), with opinion polls pointing to a 'Yes' vote that would ease concerns about its funding prospects. Unlike the Lisbon Treaty ratification, this time the Irish vote matters little for the Union.

Ireland will hold its referendum on the European Union's new fiscal treaty on 31 May in what will probably be the bloc's only popular vote on plans for stricter budget discipline.

Ireland may still have to hold a referendum on Europe's new fiscal treaty even if the government decides next month that it does not need a popular vote to sign up to the pact.

Germany continued to resist demands for the European Central Bank to intervene forcefully in the markets yesterday (14 December), whilst Ireland’s Europe minister called for a stronger role for the bank.

The EU should prepare for the possibility of the default or defection from the euro zone of some of its members, something which if prepared correctly would not cause a financial crisis and would allow the countries concerned to escape the vicious cycle of austerity and recession, argues George Soros.

Ireland's debt has been downgraded to junk status by rating agency Moody's, which said the country was likely to need further rounds of financing before it could return to international capital markets. Meanwhile, Italy's borrowing costs soared to their highest level in more than a decade, sparking new doubts about the euro zone's ability to right itself.

While the Irish must understand the constraints imposed by the bailout package, the EU also bears some responsibility for the banking crisis and should not undermine Ireland's economic model, writes former Taoiseach John Bruton.

Ireland's government faces backlash when voters head to the polls in a small county in the country's north today (25 November) to fill a vacant parliamentary seat. The vote raises the risk that the 2011 budget, the first step in the four-year austerity plan, may not make it through parliament on 7 December.

European Union finance ministers yesterday (21 November) agreed a request from Ireland to help it deal with its crippling debt problem. The plan, to be finalised this week, is estimated to be worth 80-90 billion euros and will be subject to strict conditionality, including a four-year austerity budget.

Ireland has started talks with EU authorities and the IMF over a rescue plan focusing on the restructuring of its banking sector, the bloc's finance ministers said yesterday (16 November), hoping to calm fears of a contagion to other eurozone members in difficulty.

Ireland did not rule out the possibility that it may have to turn to Europe for help in dealing with its debt crisis on Sunday (14 November), in what could be the second rescue of a eurozone country after Greece.

Irish leader Brian Cowen's blanket guarantee for the country's banks was ''one of the most catastrophic political decisions taken in post-war Europe'' due to the lack of a wider EU strategy to tackle the sector's problems, writes Wolfgang Münchau of Eurointelligence, who is also an associate editor at the Financial Times.

Small businesses in Ireland fear a decision by a major UK bank to close its Irish operations will plunge them into an acute credit crisis by the end of the year.

The Irish government led by Brian Cowen, which last week succeeded in ratifying the EU's Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum, could collapse in the coming days following an expenses scandal which has rocked the beleaguered ruling coalition.

Following Ireland's approval of the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum last week, most analysts see the country's change of heart not as an ideological move, but akin to a cry for help, as the Irish government predicts that the budget deficit is set to increase.

The head of a leading Irish SME lobby is demanding that the government introduce a loan guarantee scheme to get credit to cash-starved businesses.

A second Irish rejection of the EU's Lisbon Treaty would shatter international confidence in Ireland's ability to deal with its economic woes and would raise the country's borrowing costs, the country's finance minister warned on Friday.

Accusations that a Catholic charity is distorting the contents of the Lisbon Treaty highlight serious confusion among Irish voters about the text and the absence of a fact-based debate in Ireland.

"It's the economy, stupid" was the message yesterday (2 September) as a delegation of leading Irish employers met with EU leaders to seek their help in pushing for a 'yes' vote in the forthcoming Lisbon Treaty referendum.

84% of business leaders in Ireland believe last year's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by popular referendum damaged the country's international reputation.

A compromise was reached today (19 June) between EU leaders offering Ireland legally-binding guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty without requiring other countries to re-ratify the text.

The guarantees granted to Ireland last year in exchange for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty are creating difficulties as EU diplomats scramble to finalise agreements ahead of June's European summit in Brussels.