Ireland in danger of collapse

[norrahe]

What's the difference between Iceland and Ireland?

1 letter and give or take 6 months!

[DiscoStu]

What's the difference between Iceland and Ireland?

1 letter and give or take 6 months!

AtW says Ireland will weather this better than us

[norrahe]

AtW says Ireland will weather this better than us

It's a lot worse than people think.

Things are only starting to get bad over there.

[tim123]

It's a lot worse than people think.

Things are only starting to get bad over there.

I quite looking forward to buying my retirement home in a nice area for 20k (pounds) in 2 years time.

tim

[minestrone]

Ireland never really had much of anything going for it.

You cannot keep an economy going on giving low tax to foreign companies, eventually you have to have something of your own and they never bothered.

I have heard that Dell are about to get out the place as well and they have a big operation there.

[norrahe]

Ireland never really had much of anything going for it.

You cannot keep an economy going on giving low tax to foreign companies, eventually you have to have something of your own and they never bothered.

I have heard that Dell are about to get out the place as well and they have a big operation there.

yep, having lived over here for 16 years, it's never appealed for me to move back

Dell have closed down and moved their operations to Poland.

only a matter of time before others follow suit

[gringo1]

Ireland in danger of collapse

The situation in Ireland is very serious, I was there at christmas, (Limerick not exactly the centre of the universe!!!) with the euro so strong Limerick is now more expensive than the West End in London.
1 pint of beer in Limerick is close to £5.00
Limerick 6 minute cab journey at night £10.00

Even after the recent falls in Irish house prices they are still at least £80K more expensive than current average UK house prices prices,

after 14 years of record growth in the Irish economy, the country is simply to expensive to do business in. Just look at Dell which has announced it is to shift its Limerick operation to Poland with the loss of 2000 jobs

One other fact, and this is the biggest Joke of all, the Irish Premier Brian Cowan earns 310,000 euro a year, this is more than the President of the USA who earns approx £200,000/Year or Gordon Brown who earns £187,000

is it any surprise the country is in meltdown??

[minestrone]

Never understood why Dublin got so expensive in the first place, London and Edinburgh can justify high prices because they have (had) strong economies and are great places to live, I would put Dublin closer to Cardiff or Belfast.

[Fred Bloggs]

Yet, some major UK co's are relocating there because of the very low corporation tax versus the UK tax rate.

[BrilloPad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/g...ist-warns.html

Help Ireland or it will exit euro, economist warns
A leading Irish economist has called on Dublin to threaten withdrawal from the euro unless Europe's big powers do more to rescue Ireland's economy.

"This is war: countries have to defend themselves," said David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank.

"It is essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. We say, either we default or we pull out of Europe," he told RTE radio.

"If Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected. The credibility of the euro will be badly affected. Then Spain might default, Italy and Greece," he said.

Mr McWilliams, a former UBS director and now prominent broadcaster, has broken the ultimate taboo by evoking threats to precipitate an EMU crisis, which would risk a chain reaction across the eurozone's southern belt, where yield spreads on state bonds are already flashing warning signals. The comments reflect growing bitterness in Dublin over the way the country has been treated after voting against the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

"If we have a single currency there are obligations and responsibilities on both sides. The idea that Germany and France can just hang us out to dry, as has been the talk in the last couple of days should not be taken lying down," he said.

Mr McWilliams cited the example of New York's threat to default in 1975. President Gerald Ford "blinked" at the 11th hour and backed a bail-out to prevent broader damage.

As yet, there is no public support for withdrawal from the euro. A Quantum poll published by the Irish Independent yesterday found that 97pc reject such a radical move. Three-quarters are in favour of a national government, an idea floated by Unilever's ex-chief Niall Fitzgerald.

"The economic disaster we are facing is unlike anything which has happened in my lifetime. It is a national crisis and needs a government of national unity," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Mr McWilliams said EMU was preventing Irish recovery. "The only way we can win this war is by becoming, once again, an export country. We can do what we are doing now, which is to reduce our wages, throw more people on the dole and suffer a long contraction. The other model is what the British are doing. Britain is letting sterling fall so that the problem becomes someone else's. But we, of course, have ruled this out by our euro membership.

"We are paying twice for the euro: once on the exchange rate and once more on the interest rate," he said.

"By keeping with the current policy, the state is ensuring that Ireland turns itself into a large debt-repayment machine. Is this the sort of strategy to win wars? " he said.