The Irish Economy

The setting up of NAMA (National Asset Management Agency) here in Ireland is rightly achieving a great deal of attention at present from politicians, economists and the public at large. It is truly a massive undertaking proposing to transfer to the agency some 90 billion euro of bank loans made to developers amidst the mania of the Celtic Tiger boom, thereby creating perhaps the largest property company in the world. As the result of so many bad loans the banking system was in dire straits. So the government first rowed in to provide a guarantee to depositors, and then later went some way to recapitalising the banks. However due to the extent of the crisis (with most loans now likely to realise considerably less than their book value) the Government has now set up this agency in a further dramatic step to restore banking confidence. So the agency intends to take these loans from the banks (a great deal of which are toxic) while promising to pay a sum for them which is likely

Here in Ireland we have sailed into very troubled economic waters which are likely to remain so for a considerable time to come. While most European economies have been suffering due to the financially induced international recession, Ireland's problems have been compounded by the collapse of a greatly over hyped property boom. Now, as so many false dreams lie in tatters the blame game has started in earnest with the Government, bankers and developers mainly in the firing line. However the phenomenon of a boom is in fact a lot more complex reflecting a moral deficiency shared to a greater or lesser extent by the whole population. During the Celtic Tiger years in Ireland a remarkable shift in values took place. The traditional system fostered by the Catholic Church gave way to an increasingly materialistic self serving attitude affecting all walks of life. From this new perspective everyone seemed to be benefit as long as the Tiger continued. Government revenues soared due to rampan