The press release is here.
Month: September 2010
The EPA has released a new report on landfill, showing that environmental and nuisance management is much, much better than it used to be. It also contains an action plan to further improve things.
In an interview with the Irish Times, Dara Lynott adds that Ireland is likely to meet its landfill target for 2010 (I disagree) but not after that (I agree) as too little effort is made to provide alternatives to landfill.
In this new IIIS DP, Agustin Benetrix and I looked at the covariates of the shifts in fiscal outcomes between 2007 and 2009.
The abstract is:
We examine the cross-country dispersion in fiscal outcomes during 2007-2009. In principle, international differences in fiscal policy may be related to differences in optimal fiscal positions, funding constraints, political economy factors and fiscal control problems. We find that the decline in the overall and structural fiscal balances have been larger for those countries experiencing larger increases in unemployment and where credit growth during the pre-crisis period was more rapid. However, there is no systematic co-variation between fiscal outcomes and a larger number of other macroeconomic variables and country characteristics.
Kevin Daly’s piece is below:
European Views: Ireland – Old News, New News, and Breaking the ‘Vicious Circle’
September 9, 2010
Irish bond spreads have widened significantly in recent weeks, driven by fears over the cost of bailing out the banking system and the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank in particular. Some of this is old news (the government’s estimate of the cost of bailing out Anglo was first announced six months ago) and the Irish government argues – credibly, in our view – that the costs of bailing out the bank are “infuriating but manageable”. However, the rise in Ireland’s borrowing costs has now created a dangerous dynamic of its own, which needs to be addressed with some urgency. Providing an independent estimate of the bailout costs will be an important first step. In addition, the Irish government should (and, we expect, will) accelerate the speed of its fiscal adjustment.
Background: Rise in Irish Bond Spreads on Costs of Anglo Bailout
You can read it here, with the usual striking photo.