DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton will join French side Racing Metro next season after the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) said on Friday the flyhalf would not be renewing his contract with European champions Leinster.

Sexton, who won three Heineken Cups in four seasons with Leinster and has become one of Ireland’s most influential players, has been offered a two-year contract with the Paris-based side, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

DUBLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton will join French side Racing Metro next season after the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) said on Friday the flyhalf would not be renewing his contract with European champions Leinster.

Sexton, who won three Heineken Cups in four seasons with Leinster and has become one of Ireland’s most influential players, has been offered a two-year contract with the Paris-based side, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

BELFAST (Reuters) – The Bank of England’s inflation-targeting remit needs to be fine-tuned but should not undergo fundamental change, central bank governor Mervyn King said in a speech on Tuesday.

He also said that the central bank was ready to restart bond purchases or cut interest rates if needed to boost the economy, but that Britain needed more fundamental reforms if it was to exceed the “gentle recovery” he expects for 2013.

BELFAST, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The Bank of England’s
inflation-targeting remit needs to be fine-tuned but should not
undergo fundamental change, central bank governor Mervyn King
said in a wide-ranging speech on Tuesday.

King also said the central bank was ready to restart bond
purchases or cut interest rates if needed to boost the economy,
but that Britain needed more fundamental reforms if it was to
exceed the “gentle recovery” which he expects for 2013.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Brian O’Driscoll’s decade of leading Ireland ended on Thursday after Jamie Heaslip was named as skipper for this year’s Six Nations, drawing the national team’s longest captaincy to a close.

No.8 Heaslip led Ireland in November in his Leinster team mate’s absence through injury and although O’Driscoll has returned to the squad, coach Declan Kidney said the time was right for a change.

DUBLIN, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Brian O’Driscoll’s decade of leading Ireland ended on Thursday after Jamie Heaslip was named as skipper for this year’s Six Nations, drawing the national team’s longest captaincy to a close.

No. 8 Heaslip led Ireland in November in his Leinster team mate’s absence through injury and although O’Driscoll has returned to the squad, coach Declan Kidney said the time was right for a change.

DUBLIN, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Ireland is working on a “novel”
solution to reach a deal with the European Central Bank on
rescheduling part of its bank debt, which will not take
policymakers too far out of their comfort zone, its central bank
governor said.

Dublin has been negotiating with the ECB for over a year to
ease the tough repayment terms on promissory notes, or IOUs,
that it pumped mainly into the failed Anglo Irish Bank, and
wants a deal agreed before the next payment falls due in March.

DUBLIN, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Ireland is very close to the
normalised market funding that would make it eligible for the
European Central Bank’s bond-buying programme after the
country’s bond sale this week, its debt chief said on Wednesday.

Ireland kicked off its funding for the year on Tuesday when
it sold 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of 2017 paper, raising
a quarter of the 10 billion euros it aims to borrow in 2013
before a planned exit from its 85 billion euro ($111 billion)
EU/IMF bailout.

DUBLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Ireland sold 2.5 billion euros
($3.3 billion) of debt on Tuesday, raising a quarter of the 10
billion euros it aims to borrow in 2013 ahead of a planned exit
from its EU/IMF bailout.

Ireland had said on Monday it would kick off the funding
plan by reopening the 2017 bond it issued last July. That 3.8
billion euro sale marked the country’s return to the long-dated
debt market following its EU/IMF rescue in November 2010.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s bond-buying scheme shows the bank’s determination to preserve the euro but will not by itself restore debt spreads to pre-crisis levels, the head of Ireland’s central bank said on Thursday.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in September the bank was ready to buy unlimited amounts of bonds focused on maturities of one to three years of countries that requested a European bailout and met strict conditions.