The Front Pages
Ah, the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank – it seemed like a good idea at the time, right? Wait… it didn’t? And we all just went along with it? Today’s Irish Times headline is depressing reading: ‘Total State funding provided to Anglo now poised to top €24bn’
According to the Times, the enormous bill is a result of deeper discounts being applied to loans that Anglo is transferring to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). Yesterday the European Commission gave their approval for the Government to provide an eye-watering ‘up to €10.054 billion in temporary emergency State aid’ to Anglo, on top of the €14.3 billion it has approved thus far.
The Irish Independent reports on a very similar story this morning, though takes a much tougher stance with their front page headline ‘Billions more ‘will go into Anglo black hole’. Reporting on the European Commission’s approval of sinking another €10bn into Anglo, the Independent also reports that the Department of Finance has admitted it does not know how much the bailout will ultimately cost.
Admitting a “significant risk†of the final cast of Anglo rising over Finance Minister Brian Lenihan promise the project, coupled with Irish Nationwide, would be no more than “€23bn to €25bnâ€, the department looks set to suffer a swath of criticism from opposition who consider the bank a ‘black hole’.
