Ireland’s Bank Eligible Liabilities Guarantees Scheme (ELG) is to end on 31st March
MINISTER FOR FINANCE MICHAEL NOONAN: SAID ‘SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS’ HAD BEEN MADE IN ADDRESSING IRELAND’S BANKING PROBLEMS.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has announced the Eligible Liabilities Guarantees Scheme (ELG) is to end.
The scheme will be closed on March 28th.
There had been growing expectations that the scheme, which was put in place in December 2009 to protect deposits in Irish covered banks, was set to be phased out, given the improving position of Irish banks.
“The Irish banking system failed the Irish people and the mismanagement of the banks and the crisis has cost the Irish taxpayer €62 billion,” Mr Noonan said this afternoon. “All of the Government actions since taking office in March 2011, both at home and abroad, are designed to repair this damage and break the negative link between the banks and the State. We are making significant progress in this regard and the ending of the Guarantee for new liabilities marks another step forward.”
The current scheme was set to run until June 30th, 2013, and late last year ratings agency Fitch warned that this would likely be the last extension.
Mr Noonan said the bank guarantee scheme had proved controversial.
“We feel the time is right and the banking system in Ireland is normal enough to proceed without the guarantee, ” he said.
“The guarantee was a decision made in an emergency and we have moved out of the emergency ward now. We have moved back to normal conditions.”
Mr Noonan said the banks would welcome the Government decision, taken at today’s Cabinet meeting, because the guarantee was costing them money.
Mr Noonan said Fine Gael had voted for the guarantee because the then finance minister Brian Lenihan said the banks had a liquidity problem rather than a solvency problem.
He said that tied the party into voting for something it probably shouldn’t have voted for.
However he stressed he did not want to criticise the late Mr Lenihan. He said decisions had to be taken quickly in the Department of Finance.
“I don’t really want to look back,” he said.
The ELG imposts a high cost on the banks, which include Bank of Ireland, AIB and Permanent TSB, as they must pay for protection of their depositors.
The scheme provides for an unconditional and irrevocable State guarantee for certain eligible liabilities (including deposits) of up to five years in maturity incurred by participating institutions from the date they joined the scheme until the closure of the scheme on certain terms and conditions.
It was introduced as a measure to maintain the stability of the financial system in the State and succeeded the government’s blanket guarantee of September 30th, 2008.
It is separate to the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, which protects deposits of up to €100,000. The Central Bank said this scheme was unaffected by today’s announcement.
The total amount guaranteed under the ELG scheme at September 30th, 2012 was €78 billion.
Between July 2011 and the end of January this year, State-guaranteed banks’ deposits increased 10 per cent to €154.3 billion, the Department of Finance said earlier this month.
Their European Central Bank funding reliance fell about 30 per cent to €48 billion in the same period, it said.
Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks withdrew their UK units from the ELG programme last year. Both banks said in November they are prepared for the expiry of the guarantee.
Labour TD Ciarán Lynch, who chairs the Oireachtas committee on finance and public expenditure, welcomed the ending of the scheme.
“This is a very significant and positive announcement and highlights the progress that this Government is making day to repair the damage caused by the banking crisis and the mismanagement of the economy by the previous Government,” he said.
“We are slowly but surely dismantling the infrastructure of economic catastrophe that was put in place by the Fianna Fail, beginning with the Blanket Bank Guarantee in 2008 and ending when they sold out our economic sovereignty to the Troika in 2010.”
Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the ending of the ELG scheme was “a necessary step towards normalising the banking system”.
“In recent months, the Irish banks have managed to successfully raise funds outside of the guarantee scheme and deposit levels have stabilised. Since its introduction, the ELG scheme has played an important role in ensuring affordable access to funding for the banks and has yielded around €1 billion a year for the exchequer by way of fees from the participating banks.”
Shane Filan’s Sligo mansion is now up for sale
- The mansion that formerly belonged to bankrupt Westlife star Shane Filan has been put on the market.
The Castledale house in Carraroe, Co Sligo – once home to singer Shane (33), his wife Gillian and their young family – has a price tag of €990,000.
This is a far cry from the estimated €4m the house cost to build.
The move comes as the father-of-three continues to deal with debts of up to €23m.
The well-known singer – who is rumoured to be releasing a solo album this year – was declared bankrupt in the UK last June.
He now lives in a €2.5m house in Surrey with wife Gillian and their three children Nicole (7), Shane (4) and Patrick (3) as he works through his financial problems.
The detached house has five bedrooms and six bathrooms and has been listed by Sherry Fitzgerald Draper with a guide price of €990,000 – although it’s expected to go for more than that.
Shane built the house from scratch in 2004 after being given the land by a relative and it’s estimated that he splashed out up to €4m on building it.
The Bank of Scotland is owed €3.85m on the home.
Covering an area of nearly 10,000sq ft and set on almost five acres of landscaped gardens, the waterfront home with a natural stone finish includes a bar and an entertainment lounge as well as a cinema area and a sun-room.
It is controlled by electronic gates with trees and shrubs blocking it from the road.
Many Irish office workers are highly stressed
Forty per cent of office workers and small business owners are highly stressed in their job, with Monday mornings being the most stressful time for many, a new study has found.
As part of the study, several hundred workers were surveyed about stress, while the body temperatures of a group of volunteers were also taken at set times over a five-day period.
The temperature results showed that four in 10 workers had a stress temperature of 18-24 Celsius. This indicates that they are highly stressed or are suffering from anxiety.
The most stressful time of the week was found to be first thing on a Monday morning, with almost six in 10 people showing signs of stress at this time. The second most stressful time of the week was Monday evening.
Friday was also found to be one of the most stressful days of the week. The least stressful day was Wednesday, with just one in three people recording signs of stress then.
Meanwhile, the survey of workers revealed that at least one in four people feel stressed about their job on a daily basis, while almost half believe that work stress affects their health.
One in three admitted to comfort eating in an attempt to deal with their stress.
Almost half said that they work unpaid overtime, but one in five of these said this is because they are afraid of losing their job otherwise.
According to Neil Shah, who conducted the Stress At Work study on behalf of Viking office supplies, the results show that many people are dangerously stressed, but they may not even be aware of this.
“Tension and stress can manifest themselves in many different ways, but can be linked to long-term health problems such as headaches, heart problems and depression.
“From a business point of view a stress free worker is a more productive, proactive and valuable one. Ensuring really simple things like people taking a lunch break or doing exercises in the office can make a huge difference,” he said.
Sleep study shows that a lack of enough sleep affects our genes
Researchers say a lack of sleep changes our genes, which means it affects our bodies and can even make us ill.
The team at the University of Surrey tested the blood of people who had different amounts of sleep.
The study showed that more than 700 genes changed when people had slept only 6 hours a night for a week.
This is important because the genes are all linked to protein which helps rebuild tissue in the body.
Researchers say this shows not enough sleep could make it difficult for your body to mend.
TIPS FOR GETTING A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
- Go to bed at the same time each night even on weekends. This helps your body clock get used to these times.
- Sleep in a comfortable bed.
- Create a calm bedroom environment. Sleep in a dark room and avoid turning your bedroom into an entertainment centre with televisions, computers and stereos.
- Regular exercise is a great way to improve your sleep. Just be careful not to do it close too bed time as exercise produces stimulants that stop the brain from relaxing quickly.
- A healthy diet will also help but eating a large heavy meal too close to bedtime will interfere with your sleep.
Millionaire man wants to fund private mission holidays to Mars
World’s first space tourist plans privately-funded mission to the Red Planet when it makes its nearest approach to Earth in 2018
It has been a long-cherished dream of space enthusiasts, as well as lovers of science fiction, but now it seems that someone has finally come up with an ambitious – and some say realistic – plan to send two astronauts to Mars in just five years’ time.
Tomorrow at the National Press Club in Washington, multi-millionaire Dennis Tito – the world’s first space tourist – is expected to reveal how he hopes to launch a privately-funded mission to Mars in 2018, when the Red Planet makes its nearest approach to Earth.
Little is known about the “Inspiration Mars” mission accept that it is Tito’s brainchild and that he has garnered some high-profile supporters, including Jonathan Clark, the associate professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine who has flown on the Space Shuttle six times as the crew’s surgeon.
Dr Clark told The Independent that he is not supposed to talk about the mission until all is revealed at the Washington conference this evening, but he dismissed suggestions that the plan is not a serious one.
“I wouldn’t be involved if I didn’t think there was something to it. I don’t want to pre-empt the announcement, but it’s a very in-depth study that has gone into it,” Dr Clark said.
The Inspiration Mars mission will send two astronauts on a simple return trip to Mars, flying around the far side of the planet once but without going into orbit. Scientifically, the 501-day mission will accomplish next to nothing. The probes, landers and robots already sent to Mars have sent back far more interesting and useful data than this manned mission is ever going to be able to gather.
However, in terms of human endurance and psychology, the mission could set new precedents in space exploration. For 17 months, two people will experience what it is like to be cooped up together in a space module not much bigger than a small bathroom with the ever-present risk of something going fatally wrong.
Galway man found guilty of sexual assault on four girls
The Galway village of Killimor where the sexual assaults occurred.
The girls were aged between five and 12 at the time of the sexual assaults
A Galway man has been found guilty by a jury of the sexual assault of four schoolgirls over a 10-year period.The man had denied 23 charges of sexual assault against four girls in the east Galway village of Killimor, on various dates between 1996 and 2006.
He cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims.
The girls were aged between five and 12 at the time.
All four victims broke down while being cross-examined during the five-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.
They told the jury of three women and nine men that the accused sexually assaulted each of them in turn.
The jury found the man guilty of all but one charge, following six-and a half hours of deliberation over two days.
He will be sentenced on 7 March.
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