Ireland's coalition has fallen.

[Fittster]

DUBLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland (Berlin: IIK.BE - news) 's Greens pulled the plug on the deeply unpopular coalition government on Monday by calling for a national election in January after an EU/IMF (Berlin: MXG1.BE - news) bailout package is in place.

The Greens, junior partner in the coalition, withdrew their support a day after the European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed to rescue Ireland with loans to tackle its banking and budget crisis, which have stirred up deep public anger.

European and IMF officials began thrashing out details of the package -- expected to total 80 to 90 billion euros -- on Monday, while the government put finishing touches to a drastic 15 billion euros (12.8 billion pound) austerity plan.

A top euro zone official said the first loans could flow in January but European shares and the euro reversed early gains made in response to an outline rescue deal to shore up Ireland's shattered banks and stop contagion spreading to other vulnerable members of the euro zone.

Ireland's coalition government of Fianna Fail, the Greens and independent politicians has a three-seat majority in parliament, which will be more than wiped out if the six Green lawmakers withdraw their support.

Hmm, so lending money to a government that won't exist in 8 weeks....

[Plotloss]

Fittster said:

Hmm, so lending money to a government that won't exist in 8 weeks....

That's one hell of a pre-pack job.

[turbobloke]

Great timing.

[Busa_Rush]

I suppose it's to be expected that come the time for the really hard decisions to be taken, they can't take the heat.

[fido]

[pendant]It's actually 'Fáil' with the acute accent.[/pendant]

[Eric Mc]

News broken by me on the "Is Ireland Viable" thread.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 22 November 13:56

[Andy Zarse]

This demonastrates half the problem with the EU if you ask me.

They arrogantly plough on with all this stuff without even beginning to think about the political implications. Given the cosy relationship within Irish and Greek political circles, it's maybe not surprising. But what happens when the populace gets brassed off with the hair shirt of paying off the debt and when folk realise the obvious thing is to do is to default and give the bondholders a haircut instead. What are the odds some upstart Party will cotton on to the potential popularity of this and knock over the EU/IMF anthill? An unstoppable juggernaut?

[Ozzie Osmond]

Andy Zarse said:

the obvious thing is to do is to default and give the bondholders a haircut instead.

Brilliant phase 1 strategy!

Can you outline phase 2 for us? Namely, where Ireland goes afterwards to borrow the next chunk of money it needs.

[s2art]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Andy Zarse said:

the obvious thing is to do is to default and give the bondholders a haircut instead.

Brilliant phase 1 strategy!

Can you outline phase 2 for us? Namely, where Ireland goes afterwards to borrow the next chunk of money it needs.

Basically, the IMF. Well, it sort of worked for Argentina.

[Jonny671]

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

[s2art]

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

[Bluebarge]

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

£7bn. S'easy - it's a loan, highly likely to be repaid, at 5% interest. It stops our 5th biggest trading partner going down the swannee (40% of NI's exports go south) and stops our Banks having to recognise about £7bn of loan losses. The "cash" gets created as a book entry - don't even need to look down the back of the sofa. It makes sense.

[Jonny671]

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

[TEKNOPUG]

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

We're buying the Republic of Ireland for £7billion, it's a fire-sale, everything MUST GO!!!

Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Jonny671]

TEKNOPUG said:

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

We're buying the Republic of Ireland for £7billion, it's a fire-sale, everything MUST GO!!!

Sounds like a good deal to me.

I thought we "bought" the banks out too but that hasn't meant anything to us normal people either?

[Eric Mc]

Queen on the stamps next.

Auld Dev must be turning in his grave.

[s2art]

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

Its not clear how much. 7+ billion is what we are committed to in the IMF/EU deal. However thats not the end of it, Osborne is also talking about bilateral loans. I will bet the total works out to well over 10 billion.

[TEKNOPUG]

Jonny671 said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

We're buying the Republic of Ireland for £7billion, it's a fire-sale, everything MUST GO!!!

Sounds like a good deal to me.

I thought we "bought" the banks out too but that hasn't meant anything to us normal people either?

Precisely - it's had no effect on you, so stop worrying about it

[Jonny671]

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

Its not clear how much. 7+ billion is what we are committed to in the IMF/EU deal. However thats not the end of it, Osborne is also talking about bilateral loans. I will bet the total works out to well over 10 billion.

Right.

But why are we doing this, we're in enough debt already.. What benefit will it have to us?

[CommanderJameson]

Jonny671 said:

s2art said:

Jonny671 said:

So Britain, the Britain who has no money but lots of debt is now giving Ireland £60billion? How does this work, and why?

60 billion?

I must read the article rather than just listen to it on the radio.. £7billion from the UK, £300 per household.

Still, we have no money, so why are we getting further into debt?

Government debt is nothing at all like personal debt.