Ireland to pay 'commitment' fee over €3.5bn loan from UK

RobitTV

Ireland must pay an annual fee to the British Treasury if it doesn't draw down the full amounts allowed under its bailout loans each year, the legal agreement between the two countries reveal

The British government has also covered itself against the chance that Ireland leaves the euro or even the European Union. If this happened, UK loans would have to be paid back immediately, and in sterling, not in euro or any new Irish currency, the legal agreement states.

Also disclosed in the legal agreement, which has been lodged in the House of Commons and put on the Department of Finance website, is that the UK may send representatives to Ireland to audit the country's financial position.

That level of oversight 90 years after Independence is sure to prove controversial, despite the fact that the UK was actually far more willing to lend to Ireland and with fewer strings attached than most of our European's partners.

Read more....

A.Tomas

RobitTV wrote: »

Ireland must pay an annual fee to the British Treasury if it doesn't draw down the full amounts allowed under its bailout loans each year, the legal agreement between the two countries reveal

The British government has also covered itself against the chance that Ireland leaves the euro or even the European Union. If this happened, UK loans would have to be paid back immediately, and in sterling, not in euro or any new Irish currency, the legal agreement states.

Also disclosed in the legal agreement, which has been lodged in the House of Commons and put on the Department of Finance website, is that the UK may send representatives to Ireland to audit the country's financial position.

That level of oversight 90 years after Independence is sure to prove controversial, despite the fact that the UK was actually far more willing to lend to Ireland and with fewer strings attached than most of our European's partners.

Read more....

I always wondered, as I'm sure others have, would it not be (or have been) better to get a bigger EU/IMF loan rather than another supplementary loan from Britain, in terms of interest and also so we are not prioritising their investors/gamblers on the Irish property market (over German and French)?

Plus, apart from the interest, they'll be on about this for years!!!:mad:

Even, those in the UK who have no idea about economics or politics all seem to know about their bilateral loan.

FF- what a disgrace.

lasnoufle

RobitTV wrote: »

That level of oversight 90 years after Independence is sure to prove controversial

I fail to see the link here. They gave Ireland a loan but thought there was a risk that Ireland would try to screw them by switching currencies, so they prepared against it. What's the relation with the Independence?

Good loser

Delicious. I like it.

Scofflaw

lasnoufle wrote: »

I fail to see the link here. They gave Ireland a loan but thought there was a risk that Ireland would try to screw them by switching currencies, so they prepared against it. What's the relation with the Independence?

I suspect that the idea of Crown auditors going through Ireland's books will cause a certain amount of reaction in some quarters...

cordially,
Scofflaw

lmimmfn

erm, why dont they just draw down the actual money, the uk did well to offer the loan especially when theyre imposing such drastic cuts to the public sector over the past year.

Hal Emmerich

Scofflaw wrote: »

cordially,
Scofflaw

Do you type this every time or have you it programmed on a button?

I was watching James May, Things you need to know there and "they" reckon in a lifetime the average human will spend 90 days on the Loo and now I'm wondering how long you'll spend writing that.....

Scofflaw

Hal Emmerich wrote: »

Do you type this every time or have you it programmed on a button?

I was watching James May, Things you need to know there and "they" reckon in a lifetime the average human will spend 90 days on the Loo and now I'm wondering how long you'll spend writing that.....

It takes me about 3.5 seconds to type it, so all told I've spent about 14.8 hours typing it - about 2.7 hours a year.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Lambsbread

It is pretty standard for an annual fee to apply to facilities like this annually. I would guess that it is 0.25-0.5% of the amount not drawndown. It basically gives Ireland the right to drawdown the funds at anytime during the period.

Not something that would be uncommon in the world of finance.

tweedledee

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/noonan-admits-euro78m-pay-day-for-goldman-sachs-2814935.html

Scofflaw

tweedledee wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/noonan-admits-euro78m-pay-day-for-goldman-sachs-2814935.html

As far as I can see, that's completely irrelevant. It's about Goldman Sachs, not about the subject of the thread at all.

Do not do this kind of thing. Read the thread before posting.

moderately irritated,
Scofflaw

mistermouse

If they come looking for the full amount in sterling we can tell them we have it, someone left lots of it in six of our counties to the North of the Island and they can take it with them on the way out

Or alternatively we can setup a mock parliment at the boyne site and they can have worldwide tv rights to watching Fianna Fail fight it out with the DUP, bringing back the bauld Brian Cowen and Proud Paisley, complete with Commentary team of President Norris and Gerry Adams.

The_Joker

mistermouse wrote: »

If they come looking for the full amount in sterling we can tell them we have it, someone left lots of it in six of our counties to the North of the Island and they can take it with them on the way out

Or alternatively we can setup a mock parliment at the boyne site and they can have worldwide tv rights to watching Fianna Fail fight it out with the DUP, bringing back the bauld Brian Cowen and Proud Paisley, complete with Commentary team of President Norris and Gerry Adams.

^:)^

Now there's an idea get Bertie back and have him sell off Ulster to David Cameron, Oh wait........

View

mistermouse wrote: »

If they come looking for the full amount in sterling we can tell them we have it, someone left lots of it in six of our counties to the North of the Island and they can take it with them on the way out

And, in return, the UK can do as it did in the case of the Icelandic banks - namely, use their anti-terrorism legislation to seize Icelandic assets in the UK. That had the effect of making the Icelandic banks untouchable (as other banks didn't want to deal with "terrorist banks") thus triggering their ultimate collapse.

Offhand, I'd say there are more than enough assets in the UK to cover their loan should the UK need to recoup their loan to us. And, should they make an unfortunate "rounding error" in their favour while doing so, well, who exactly is going to have sympathy with the "terrorists" (i.e. us) who financially-speaking "blew themselves up" in a ham-fisted attempt at being clever?

meditraitor

A.Tomas wrote: »

I always wondered, as I'm sure others have, would it not be (or have been) better to get a bigger EU/IMF loan rather than another supplementary loan from Britain, .

I think its just a pity the brits couldnt give us all the money we need, reasonable rates and being our bestest neighbours an all.

sollar

They have lowered the rate now also. Osbourne seems to be OK.

He stood up for us when Tim Geithner was sinking the boot in too.