to think that will all the massive cuts that are being made it is odd

[2shoes]

that the government can lend another country billions....
now I know there will be a good reason for them doing it, but if we are so in debt, how the hell can we find money to lend to others??

So are we lending them money so they can afford to pay us back?? Sounds like throwing good money after bad.

riven are you sure....

We now borrow and can borrow from countries that see it in their interest to lend to us. Countries may lend us money even though they are borrowing else where.
It's not all about £ notes for example natural resources in countries can make it appealing to lend to that country.
Of course countries can print their own money too but this often leads to high inflation & potential financial collapse. A good example of this is 1930's Germany when they printed so much money inflation made the people have to wheel barrow cash just to buy a loaf of bread.
In this country we used to only print or mint money that was equivalent to the gold reserves we had, i.e. we had a guarantee I promise to bear etc. However the last government sold off our gold reserves. It's all about deregulation of the financial industry and a more fluid movement of money globally.

Re. Ireland;
Even if we haven't got the money we need to borrow it (because Ireland can't) to bail them out in order that we stabilise europe and ultimately us.
If we don't lend them the money we could go down with them and then our economy would be so bad we couldn't borrow.
I'm not sure if this makes any sense but I know what I mean!!!

Well, I'm Irish, and I'm glad about the loan .

Kerry, I honestly thought you were being slightly tongue in cheek in your comments. I don't think it's helpful or relevant to hark back to the 19th century and the actions of the British then. Surely we've all moved on?

Britain is of course acting in self interest. And as for the corporate tax rate, I do wonder what the exact net benefit is to Ireland?

All these companies provide employment, but then repatriate their profits, so billions are siphoned out of Ireland.

if we raised our tax rate, more money would go to the exchequer, and the rest of Europe would stop whingeing about us!

Don't know if it will happen tho, autonomy over tax in each country seems to be a bit of a sacred cow.

And it's just been announced that Ireland is to have a general election in jan, so more fun and games ahead...

Def agree with you about the election kerry.

We need to get rid of the clowns that dug us further into this mess.

Unfortunately can't really see any great talent out there to replace them .

Kerry, sorry it's been bugging me but England does not = the UK.

Just sayin'

As you were.

Sorry KerryMumbles but I really think that you should be happy that the UK have agreed to pay out this money. If not Ireland would be in an even worse state. Saying that Britain owes you because of what happened hundreds of years ago will only get peoples backs up.

My best friend has just been made redundant, the bosses awarded themselves golden goodbyes, then declared the company bankrupt and told her and her colleagues that they would have to go to the job centre to 'try' and reclaim their redundancy money. She has no idea where she will get anoter job and has had to move back in with her mother.

I think she would be very angry if she read on here that there were Irish people saying sod the British because we owe them for what happened hundreds of years ago despite the fact that we are giving them billions we were told we didn't have. The potato famine had nothing to do with anyone alive today and there are people suffering in Britain too so please just be grateful we are helping you. There are people in Britain in a terrible situation at the moment and starting a nationalistic row doesn't help anyone. Both countries are suffering.

see I have less understanding than before.. so we are lending to a country that hates us??
bizarre.
as for dragging up the past, that is ok if it is your own past.

Any ship in a storm, 2shoes...

Capricorn76, while I think it is utter nonsense to drag the potato famine into this argument, I find it a bit 'off' to be told 'just be grateful we are helping you'.

I don't think you'll find too many irish people saying 'sod the british'. I'm angry and upset that Ireland has landed itself in this position, and am glad that we are part of the Eu and thus can be supported to get ourselves out of this mess (which was caused in the main by greedy and corrupt bankers and property speculators, not by the 'average' Irish person).

Britain is lending to Ireland to protect itself in the long run.

port...any port in a storm.
Oh you gte my drift lol.

I don't think we owe the irish this loan and they don't owe us any gratitude.
It is a business transaction.

'England does not = the UK'. True, we should not overlook the major part played by Scots in the C17th colonization of Ireland, which is frankly where it started to all go wrong for Ireland, never mind the C18th and C19th. The Welsh are not so much to blame.

As for people going on about the 'potato card' - well your easily-roused resentment about England being called to account for its colonial misdeeds clearly shows that history DOES matter, doesn't it? if it didn't, you'd shrug Kerry's comments off instead of resorting immediately to crass insults.

Actually, I think references to the potato famine and also to hyper inflation in Germany are very relevant here.

The forced reparations to foreign countries by Germany after WWI were the indirect cause of the later Weimar Republic inflation.

In a way, the ceding of soverignty by Ireland will eventually cause a similar response. Eventually I beleive Ireland will default on debts to foreigners, leave the Euro and then have high inflation. It really is one of the few ways Ireland can dig its way out of this in the long run. It will not happen immediatley but it is a real future possibility.

Loss of sovereigny by Ireland will inevitably lead to a serious political backlash and that is an issue very deeply embeded in the Irish psyche because of former Britush rule. Its inevitable it will affect the Irish political discourse and especially with the FF party. I see the Green party is calling for elections in January. It could happen given the Coalition Govt in Ireland. It could even cause the bailout to be rejected.