When former US president Bill Clinton told American executives that
they’d be “nuts” not to invest in Ireland, many were already ahead of
him.
US companies were behind almost 40 per cent of offices bought or
leased in Dublin last year and the trend is likely to accelerate this
year.
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LAMA Awards announce winners at Gala Event
Dublin City Council wins ‘National Impact Award’ at the LAMA Awards 2012 in association with IPB. Hosted by Miriam O’Callaghan, the Awards were held on Saturday 11th February in the Crown Plaza Hotel, Dublin, where over 400 guests gathered to honour this year’s winners.
By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels
8:16PM GMT 18 Feb 2012
The German finance ministry is actively pushing for Greece to declare
itself bankrupt and to agree a “haircut” on the bulk of its debts held
by banks, a move that would be classed as a default by financial
markets.
Dear Member
It is vital that we continue to communicate internationally that
Ireland is open and ready for business and investment, and I have been
trying to do just that this week here in the US.
Kenny: We can lead EU out of doldrums
Ireland will seek to move Europe beyond austerity and place renewed
emphasis on boosting economic growth when it assumes the presidency of
the EU, Enda Kenny has said.
But the European Central Bank would need to break from rigid policies
and play a “fuller role” in resolving the eurozone debt crisis, the
Taoiseach indicated.
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I got the following E-mail today. It shows how tough things are out
there. This was not anonymous and I have great respect for the author.
Brendan Howlin, Michael Noonan and Enda must know about this as they
are all teachers.
Bill,
As a student about to qualify as a primary school teacher, I read with
dismay the decision by the government not to pay allowances to new
teachers pending a review. The starting salary of new teachers has
gone down from e32,599 in 2008 to e27,814 in 2011, a drop of nearly
15%. The allowances I would have received represent an additional
e5,538. How can the government justify such an enormous reduction in
pay?
I look forward to your reply.
Regards
XX
Captain Kenny needs to steer us away from referendum iceberg
THE Government’s radar needs to be on amber alert. Up ahead lurks an
iceberg that could rip our Titanic below the waterline and sink
fragile hopes of economic recovery.
Ratification of the EU fiscal compact can become a most hazardous
enterprise. We only just scraped through on compliance with the Nice
and Lisbon Treaties at second attempts of plebiscites. With a
prevailing tailwind of domestic Euroscepticism, omens for public
endorsement are bleak.
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The new financial corset for the Euro will have to agreed to by us in
Ireland. It is by far the least worst option. Without a balanced
budget we are in a state of dependency. After the bank guarantee, the
state is bankrupt so the ECB/IMF has been financing us. It is
unfortunate that the Sinn Fein mantas have no real basis in fact of
sensibility. WE have to play a long game and get the amount we spend
in line with the amount we take in in taxes. There just is no other
way. This is about titrating austerity,
The real meaning of austerity is that we have run out of the borrowing
road and are on life support from our donors. What we need is frank
leadership at a political level.
Any referendum is a no-brainer because we have a huge budget deficit.
Enda was much nearer the mark in Davos than the blanket absolution
for the state of the country that he gave the Irish people in his
address to the nation on TV.