DUBLIN, Oct 31 (Reuters) – State-owned Allied Irish Banks
will need to double its net interest margin before it
can convince investors to take a stake in the bank over the next
two years, executives at the bank said on Wednesday.

Having set the state back 20 billion euros ($26 billion)
during the financial downturn – the most handed out to any
lender still open – loss-making Allied Irish is cutting staff,
branches and its funding cost base to turn a profit by 2014.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – A temporary fix to the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is “a no brainer”, EU climate chief Connie Hedegaard said on Tuesday, and reiterated her plea for political agreement on the issue before the year-end.

The Commission is expected in November to publish plans to bolster the ETS, which earlier this year saw allowances collapse to a record low, far below the levels needed to spur green energy, chiefly because of a surplus of allowances generated by recession.

DUBLIN, Oct 16 (Reuters) – A top Irish central bank official
berated the country’s banks on Tuesday over failing to solved
their bad mortgages problem, revealing for the first time that
almost 50,000 Irish buy-to-let mortgage accounts were in
arrears.

Fiona Muldoon, director of credit institutions at the bank,
told a room of bankers that a culture of leadership was missing
in their industry, just as it had been in the creation of the
credit bubble that led to the country’s financial crisis.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland kept ahead of its revenue goal for the year at the end of the third quarter but government overspending persisted, keeping the pressure on Dublin with more austerity to come.

Ireland expects to better the target set under an EU/IMF bailout to reduce its budget deficit to 8.3 percent of GDP this year from 9 percent in 2011. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday he was confident revenue goals for the year would be met.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland kept ahead of its revenue goal for the year at the end of the third quarter but government overspending persisted, keeping the pressure on Dublin with more austerity to come.

Ireland expects to better the target set under an EU/IMF bailout to reduce its budget deficit to 8.3 percent of GDP this year from 9 percent in 2011. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday he was confident revenue goals for the year would be met.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s economy unexpectedly failed to grow in the second quarter, just about skirting a return to recession after a poor first three months of the year, and making it trickier to meet modest 2012 growth targets set under its EU/IMF bailout.

Irish gross domestic product (GDP) has been one of the most resilient in the euro zone during the debt crisis, growing by 1.4 percent last year but the export-led nature of that growth makes it vulnerable to a slowdown among its trading partners.

DUBLIN, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Finland is sceptical about
giving Greece more time to implement its bailout reforms,
especially if this will cost more money, although nothing should
be ruled out yet, the country’s European Minister said on
Tuesday.

Greece wants two more years to push through the terms tied
to its aid package and the Institute of International Finance
(IIF) earlier joined a chorus that includes the IMF in advising
that Athens be allowed soften the impact of the tough austerity.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s debt chief said last week that its return to markets ahead of schedule means it can be choosy about future issuance but the price looks right for Dublin to step up its efforts and move swiftly towards exiting an EU/IMF bailout.

Ireland has taken full advantage of a dive in bond yields since July by restarting its treasury bill program, launching a bond swap, issuing its first sovereign annuity bonds and raising 4.2 billion euros ($5.52 billion) in new long-term debt.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s debt chief said last week that its return to markets ahead of schedule means it can be choosy about future issuance but the price looks right for Dublin to step up its efforts and move swiftly towards exiting an EU/IMF bailout.

Ireland has taken full advantage of a dive in bond yields since July by restarting its treasury bill programme, launching a bond swap, issuing its first sovereign annuity bonds and raising 4.2 billion euros (3.4 billion pounds) in new long-term debt.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland can afford to be choosy about when it returns to long-term bond markets even though recent moves by the European Central Bank (ECB) and German constitutional court have created positive momentum, the country’s debt chief said on Wednesday.

Dublin has begun paving the way towards exiting official funding by returning to long and short-term debt markets in recent months, a move helped greatly by euro zone leaders agreeing at a summit in June to look at easing Ireland’s bank debt.