The EU wants concessions out of Ireland

The mood in Dublin is febrile, despite the gloom of 14 percent unemployment. Everyone has advice for Enda Kenny on how to revive the Celtic Tiger. This morning, 17 prominent businessmen and public figures submitted A Blueprint for Ireland’s Recovery to the Department of the Taoiseach. The Irish Times reports that the authors propose deeper spending cuts and greater efficiency in the public sector. This is a different approach from influential Irish Economist Colm McCarthy, who argued on Sunday that ‘fiscal stringency is not enough to resolve the crisis’ because the banking restructure (contained within the IMF/EU bailout) is ‘impractical’.

Enda Kenny, it seems, agrees with McCarthy, which is why he went to Brussels last week to renegotiate the 5.7 percent interest rate on the loan; although the gentle crescendo of Irish euroscepticism lends a political dimension to those efforts.

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