Daft Property - Irish Property News

Ireland's future depends on breaking free from bailout... OPINION: Ireland is heading for bankruptcy, which would be catastrophic for a country that trades on its reputation as a safe place to do business. WITH THE Irish Government on track to owe a quarter of a trillion euro by 2014, a prolonged and chaotic national bankruptcy is becoming inevitable. By the time the dust settles, Ireland’s last remaining asset, its reputation as a safe place from which to conduct business, will have been destroyed. Ireland is facing economic ruin. While most people would trace our ruin to to the bank guarantee of September 2008, the real error was in sticking with the guarantee long after it had become clear that the bank losses were insupportable. Brian Lenihan’s original decision to guarantee most of the bonds of Irish banks was a mistake, but a mistake so obvious and so ridiculous that it could easily have been reversed. The ideal time to have reversed the bank guarantee was a few month...

A drunken Premier playing right into the hands of the EU Can one bank bring down a country? At the end of August, a reporter from the New York Times asked that question about Ireland's bust Anglo Irish Bank. The Dublin government denied such a thing were possible. Yet now it is looking very much like it might happen. Anglo's debts are so vast that the government may have to pay 34billion euros to bail-out the bank. Bail-outs for other Irish banks will bring the total to 50billion euros. Party animal: Irish Premier Brian Cowen and admirers at a Fianna Fail function Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, was forced to admit yesterday that these bail-out costs will push the national deficit this year to 32 per cent of GDP. Such figures would be shocking in Britain. Even at its worst, Britain's deficit is heading for little more than 10 per cent. However in Ireland, where the entire working population numbers just 1.8million and unemployment is at 14 per cent, figures like that a...

Ireland is staring down the barrel of bankruptcy... Why are interest rates for Irish debt rising? Because the risk of a blowout here is rising -- it really is that simple IN THE summer of 1787, determined to show foreign ambassadors the might of Russian power in the newly subjugated Ukraine, Catherine the Great organised a boat trip down the Dnieper, past modern-day Kiev. Her trusted field marshal -- who was also her lover -- Prince Gregory Potemkin organised a series of mobile villages to appear as soon as the imperial barge, stuffed with innocent and gullible foreign dignitaries, came into view. When the boat came within earshot of the river bank, the villagers would break into a spontaneous, sycophantic chorus of praise for the empress, giving the perplexed foreigners the impression that not only had Russia pacified Ukraine, it had also managed to win over the local peasantry -- which was no mean feat in the 18th Century. As soon as the imperial barge turned the corner, the villager...

McNamara, FitzPatrick facing bankruptcy 'in weeks'... TWO of the Celtic Tiger's highest fliers -- developer Bernard McNamara and banker Sean FitzPatrick -- face bankruptcy within weeks. The Irish Independent has learned that Mr McNamara, once worth almost €240m, is facing a fresh attempt by a group of private investors to force him into bankruptcy. The group is pursuing up to 40 properties owned by the Clare-born builder, records show. Meanwhile, Anglo Irish Bank will veto any plans by FitzPatrick -- who owes the bank €110m -- to reach a private deal with his creditors. Both men are now facing the real prospect of having all their assets, including their family homes, seized and sold off. Pursued Bankruptcy in Ireland lasts for 12 years, with those declared bankrupt facing travel restrictions, curbs on their ability to borrow money and/or run a business. Mr McNamara is already being pursued by investors arising from the disastrous Glass Bottle site investment. But now a sec...

29 property suicides leave State unmoved... Families torn apart by cash crisis Twenty-nine deaths by suicide can be directly linked to the turmoil in the construction and property sector but dozens more deaths among small investors, homeowners and construction industry workers linked to financial despair have gone unreported. David Mellon, of the Irish Property Council believes the human misery inflicted by the collapse in the property and construction industry is incalculable and the Government is doing nothing to protect the sanctity of the family home. He predicted that by the time the economy recovers, hundreds will have taken their own lives because they have been plunged into a financial abyss from which they can see no way out. "We are talking about people who invested in property, people who earned their livelihood from it in many forms; builders, plasterers, plumbers, developers and large and small investors. "They are now facing financial disaster, bankruptcy and de...