The Government and opposition parties have signed up to reducing the budget deficit to 3% by 2014. The government has now settled on the figure of €15 billion in cuts over the course of four years in order to achieve this stated goal.
The IMF have released their bi-annual World Economic Outlook report which analyses the world economy, individual countries and predicts growth prospects for the future.
Ann Orr writes about the increasing problem of mortgage defaults : In December 26,271 mortgage holders were behind in their mortgage re-payments due to the dramatic increase in unemployment. And Michael Murphy writes about the government's plans for another bank bailout.
Right now in Ireland one in eight mortgages are in trouble. This represents 95,158 households which are in arrears or have already had their debt restructured. Of these mortgages in arrears 72% have been behind in payments for more than six months and of these the average amount owed is €21,000. For people owing so much, repayment looks impossible without a major transformation in personal circumstance.