Daft Property - Irish Property News

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