Britain has provided £10bn (€11.8bn) in “back-door bailout” funding since 2008 to prop up the struggling Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of the nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland, writes The Times

The government provided cash to keep the bank afloat instead of handing the loss-making group to the Irish government, which could have had a catastrophic impact on the Irish economy.

The daily reports that unlike the decision to offer a £3.25bn direct loan to Ireland in 2010, which was only approved after a parliamentary vote, this more significant financial support did not get the express approval of MPs.

Ireland’s reputation “took a battering” at a US Senate hearing on May 21, reports The Irish Times, receiving the label of “tax haven” in an investigation into the offshore tax practices of technology company Apple.

The California-based makers of the iPhone and the iPad were accused of making a special agreement with Irish authorities to hide tens of billions of US dollars in Irish “ghost companies”.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny rejected the allegations and dismissed the notion that Ireland was a tax haven, saying “Ireland does not – I will repeat – does not do special tax-rate deals with companies.”

Irish President Michael Higgins is under fire following an interview with the Financial Times in which said that the EU was “hegemonic” and faces a “moral crisis” as much as an economic one. He also urged the European Central Bank to reform or risk social upheaval and a loss of popular legitimacy. He has attracted the ire of critics who say he has overstepped the constitutional limits of his office. But this should not lead Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny to reach “for his censor’s pencil”, writes the Irish Times:

In articulating the case for a social Europe and a rejection of orthodox neo-liberalism, perhaps the President, in his inimitable way, is straying beyond the ideological horizon of the government. [...] Mr Higgins, in pushing boundaries and urging that we develop a new vision of the EU and our place in it, is playing an essential role in stimulating, without deciding, a debate that is necessary and overdue.

The constitutionality of Higgins’ comments should be left to Ireland to debate, notes the Financial Times editorial. But “the issues he addressed are precisely those we should want elected politicians to grapple with publicly.” The economic daily continues –

Mr Higgins may think that the moral arguments stack up against austerity. But it also matters morally if borrowing today burdens future generations; and if public borrowing is spent on privileged insiders’ interests. He is, however, right that the debate must be had.

On April 29, the Northern Ireland Assembly opted to reject same-sex marriage legislation, which was voted down by the Protestant conservative Ulster Unionist Party with encouragement from religious leaders.

"Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without marriage rights for gay couples," points out the daily.

Same-sex marriage was approved by England and Wales on February 5, 2013, and a bill to introduce the legislation is making progress in the Scottish Parliament.

The Irish government must begin providing monthly reports on health spending to the troika of international lenders (EU-ECB-IMF) as part of efforts to reduce costs.

According to a confidential report prepared by the European Commission, the troika is concerned at health overspending, the quantity of distressed mortgages and persistent high unemployment.

The findings will be discussed by a series of financial committees in the Irish and German parliaments and published before the troika’s next inspection later this month.

The government must increase the pace of its banking reforms, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi said on March 7, as new Irish financial data revealed that mortgages on 23,500 properties have not been paid for two years or more.

Draghi congratulated Ireland on its economic reforms but said there had been insufficient progress in the banking sector.

His comments have come just days after the EU’s 27 finance ministers approved a plan to postpone repayment of part of Ireland’s €40bn bailout.

The EU has agreed an extension for Ireland and Portugal to give them more time to repay their bailout loans. Meeting on March 5, the 27 finance ministers hailed their “successful steps” towards re-entering the markets.

Under the deal, the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund will agree a new repayment schedule for a significant chunk of Ireland’s €40bn in bailout loans that had been due to be repaid before 2016. However, for Irish Independent columnist David McWilliams, the deal is little more than a “gentleman’s default” designed to buy time. He warns –

The Irish economy may emerge from the bailout unreformed and weaker, unlike the original plan. [...] We can see that the EU needs a victory in Ireland because its entire "austerity works" strategy is based on Ireland squeezing itself out of the bailout next year. [...] All that has happened is the debt pack is reshuffled to avoid a principal default but the economy is not just fragile but less able to take on the challenges of the globalisation.

In a sense this might be the worst of all worlds – a fictitious victory based on kicking the debt problem out to future generations.

Eurozone finance ministers endorsed on March 4 a plan to extend the repayment deadline for the country’s bailout loans, “smoothing the path back to regular market access”.

Finance ministers from the EU’s entire 27 member states will now debate the proposal on March 5.

The country has more than €30bn in loan repayments due before 2020 and, along with Portugal, requested in January that the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund approve a postponement deal.

“The food sector elsewhere in Europe is increasingly concerned,” writes the newspaper, following the discovery of horsemeat in lasagne, which was supposed to contain beef and was sold by French frozen food retailer Picard.

Like Findus in the UK, Picard, which also operates in Belgium, purchased the affected meat from French supplier Comigel.

Lawmakers in Ireland's parliament voted overnight to liquidate the Irish Bank Resolution Corp, or IBRC, one of its "bad banks", as part of a plan for a new debt-repayment deal with the European Central Bank.

The rushed nature of the legislation followed leaks to news agencies yesterday of “reliable” information that may have affected the markets and “placed between €12bn and €14bn of IBRC assets at risk,” writes the daily.

The government plans to transfer those assets to the NAMA, the other toxic-debt management bank. Politicians had to approve the measure, which will lead to the loss of 850 jobs, before Ireland’s courts opened and creditors could file lawsuits to block the bank’s dismantlement.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny fell short of offering a formal government apology over state involvement in sending women to work in the notorious Magdalene Laundries, Catholic-run workhouses that operated in Ireland during much of the 20th Century.

An inquiry into government involvement in the Laundries, described brutal conditions in which the women worked unpaid, while others described the situation as “white slavery”.

Two web pages used by loyalist flag protesters on Facebook will be shut down. A judge ordered their closure after threatening comments were posted alongside images of a Catholic man living in the flashpoint Short Strand eastern district of the city, which has seen violent protests against the controversial decision to reduce the number of days the Union flag is flown over Belfast City Hall.

“Forty years ago today a Union Jack was raised on top of the Brussels headquarters of what was then known as the European Economic Community,” begins Dominic Lawson in The Independent.

I may be missing something; but there do not seem to be any such celebrations, either in Brussels or Blighty, to mark the 40th anniversary of what must be accounted the most significant moment – at least symbolically – in post-war British history.” Contrasting Europe's relationship with the UK to the EU's relationship with Ireland – which joined the EEC at the same time and has now taken over the EU’s rotating national presidency, the conservative columnist concludes that most Britons are far removed from the mindset of those at the heart of the EU project. With pressure mounting on UK Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a clear “in-out” referendum on British membership of the EU, Lawson adds –

I know that many think there is actually something uncivilised in not being a member of the EU. But I have never felt, when in Switzerland, that I am far from civilisation; nor that Switzerland’s international image is somehow diminished by its lack of membership of this particular political club. Forty years on, it is high time to reassess the terms of our own partnership: as with some marriages, amicable separation might be preferable to fractious co-habitation.

Ireland, which took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on January 1, may have found a way out of the crisis thanks to off-shore petrol. The idea has taken hold in Dublin since a bout of "black gold fever in Cork" notes Spanish daily La Vanguardia caused by the discovery of oil deposits in the Irish Sea. Ireland's second largest city is now "awaiting an economic boom" with the idea "fostering dreams" in a country deeply hit by the crisis, the paper says, adding –

Representatives from ExxonMobil, Texaco and other major oil companies lunch in the city's pubs and restaurants on the banks of the River Lee, just like, in Dublin, where the members of The Troika [Ireland's creditors, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank]. But in this case, the intention is to invest and not to dictate their lending conditions.

The deposit, called the Barryfoe Field, is estimated at 280 million barrels worth €30 billion. There is only one detail yet to be resolved – where to find the €1.5 billion needed to exploit the deposit. Gathering these funds is the goal of a company called Providence, created by the local tycoon and former rugby player Tony O'Reilly. He says he wants to make Cork "one of the most prosperous cities in Europe". La Vanguardia says –

In the past, oil deposits were found in the Irish Sea, but their high exploitation costs made them unprofitable. The situation today is much more favourable because of the development of cheaper extraction techniques, the rise in the price of petrol and the low taxes on foreign firms investing in Ireland (the country has the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe, a constant source of friction with Brussels). Cork, the European headquarters for Apple and the site of US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer's Viagra factory hopes to move to the next level and join the major league economic and financial big hitters. It hopes to become to Ireland what Aberdeen has become to Scotland and that the petrol from the Irish Sea will provide the same benefits as that provided by the North Sea. With [global] oil use reaching 88 million barrels per day and with a thirst for it so insatiable that environmental considerations are unable to quench it, this is not just wishful thinking.

The violent street protests, which have rocked Belfast for the past two weeks following a vote to restrict flying the British union flag above City Hall, hit a new low, with more than a dozen demonstrators arrested after bricks were hurled at police. The dispute centres on a decision to reduce the number of days that the flag is flown, from 365 to 20. The flag is a powerful symbol of UK rule in Northern Ireland, which divides pro-British unionists from nationalist republicans.

Thousands of unionist demonstrators have flooded Belfast’s streets almost every night since the vote on December 3, building barricades and burning debris. “This can’t go on,” shouts the Belfast Telegraph on its front page, as unionist leaders appealed to loyalists to call off the protests. But for the daily’s columnist Liam Clarke, these politicians are failing to show sufficient leadership. He writes –

Up to now the unionist parties handled the situation so badly that they will struggle to get things on an even keel. It is the task of leadership to project confidence and vision amidst change — not to present council votes as last-ditch stands. Rather than bringing us closer to Britain, the scenes of the last week have put more strain on the relationship than a flag vote ever could.

For Martin Fletcher, writing in The Times, the sight of armoured Land Rovers, made him conclude “it is as if the dark days of the Troubles have returned.” He adds –

The flag vote caused such an eruption of rage because many loyalists considered it the culmination of a relentless republican assault on their identity made possible by the Good Friday agreement [between loyalists and republicans, in 1998]. They believe nationalists have secured much better housing, schools and facilities than themselves. It remains to be seen whether the present unrest fizzles or escalates, but either way the mood is likely to remain tense, ugly and volatile.

“The most savage budget of the economic downturn" says the Irish Independent, assessing the government’s new austerity budget, which aims to save €3.5bn. The savings will come through a mix of higher taxes on property, income and alcohol, plus cuts in benefits, including those for parents, pensioners and the unemployed. Ireland must make savings in order to continue to receive EU and IMF bailouts. Seizing on a comment by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, who pledged the budget would be fair and “those who had the most would pay the most”, the daily’s opinion writer, Johnny Fallon, brands the fairness test a failure, saying –

There were a number of smash-and-grab elements that are hard to justify when one talks of a Budget being fair. Budget 2013 will bring much hardship and it will do so because the government has failed to do its job before this. The reality is that at least some of the measures we are taking make no sense at all and the EU is concerning itself with a longer game, and effects on other countries, with little care for what happens on the ground in Ireland in the meantime. Ireland can wait. After a savage Budget that is intent on sacrificing ordinary families on the altar of a socio-economic model that no one is even sure they like or want, it is time to say enough.

In The Irish Times, Stephen Collins, adds that the budget has walked a careful line and manages to keep both the Labour Party and Fine Gael sides of the coalition happy, but he notes the new property tax is likely to trigger future problems, writing –

It is still going to be an enormous imposition, and paying it will be widely resented by an already hard-pressed electorate.

The European Court of Justice will start hearing arguments today surrounding objections by Irish MP Thomas Pringle to the ratification of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) treaty, reports the Irish Times.

Pringle argued in the Irish courts in June that the ESM treaty, which provides for a €500 billion fund to help struggling eurozone countries and banks, breached both the Irish Constitution and European Union law. Although Ireland’s Supreme Court refused to grant an injunction in July preventing Dublin from ratifying the treaty, it nevertheless referred a series of questions for determination to the Luxembourg based court.

The EUobserver notes that cash strapped Ireland is to pay its first installment of €500 million to the fund, after its came to life on October 8 –

If the EU judges rule against it, the ESM, its ratification and any payments made to Luxembourg, [where the ESM is based] will be deemed illegal. The EU court has fast-tracked its judgment in order to 'remove uncertainty' on the 'financial stability of the euro area' and pundits expect it to say No to Pringle.

The ESM is “galling” for public opinion in Ireland, the Brussels based news site reports. The Irish government has long campaigned to have its €64 billion bank bailout debt burden borne in part by the European fund but –

... eurozone hawks, such as Germany and Finland, have said it cannot help out with old bad bank debt – the main problem facing the Irish exchequer.

In what is considered to be a major boost for Ireland’s image abroad, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has made the cover of Time magazine with an accompanying headline declaring: “The Celtic Comeback”. The influential American weekly discusses Enda Kenny's “rebuilding” of the Irish economy after its 2008 crash, and “what the rest of Europe can learn from him”. Since taking over asPrime minister of the crisis stricken country in 2011, Kenny, Time enthuses –

… has pressed on with the sort of cuts in government services that have brought protesters onto the streets of Greece and Spain, countries that are faced with similar debt burdens. Kenny, however, has not had to deal with as many public protests over austerity measures, and that has given him more political room than his Greek and Spanish counterparts. Many voters and commentators have long considered Kenny to be a lightweight figure in the Irish political scene, but with Ireland’s GDP beginning to sneak upward once again Kenny may prove himself anything but the “fool” that his predecessor (Brian Cowen) called him in 2010.

Much of the national press is bemused by Time’s chirpy tone, given that under EU/ECB/IMF tutelage Ireland remains in the throes of mass unemployment (14.9%) and emigration (80,000 in the last 12 months). The Irish Independent leader avers –

Foreign praise is nice, but it will not erase domestic strife … The economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith once claimed ‘no society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable’. That unfortunately represents a far more appropriate summary of the state of the Irish nation than Time's ‘Celtic Comeback’ musings.

Every Sunday, after mass, the citizens of Ballyhea in southern Ireland march silently from one end of their tiny village to the other. Their protest is against the rescue of the country’s banks, which crashed after the Irish property bubble collapsed in 2008. The billions needed to keep these banks afloat, all at the taxpayer’s expense, eventually led the Irish government to seek the €85 billion EU/ECB/IMF bailout of 2010.

66 weeks into a weekly march in a country wracked by austerity budgets, mass unemployment and emigration, their anger took on an international dimension as 15 amongst them flew to Frankfurt with a letter for Mario Draghi, chief of the European Central Bank. According to the Irish Examiner –

The long white document, stuck with blu-tack to the glass doors of the soaring office block that is the European Central Bank, greeted the mandarins of the euro when they arrived for work.

Like Martin Luther’s Theses nailed to the door of the Church in Wittenberg almost 500 years ago, the Ballyhea protesters hope their statement will bring about a reformation, too.

[...] While Martin Luther objected to indulgences being sold to pay for building St Peter’s in Rome, the Irish protesters explained that the country’s future was being sold to pay for bankers.

For the protestors – “greeted with unexpected civility by the citizens of Frankfurt and the staff of the ECB” –

The ECB is to blame for our soaring bank debt. The ECB has been abusing its financial muscle and forcing a weak Irish government to assume for the Irish people a debt burden that is not ours.