About 45% of our clients and visitors to www.torcana.com are based in Ireland, so we pay very close attention to the political and economic situation on the ground. Unfortunately it looks increasingly likely that Ireland is going to be very volatile over the next 6-12 months. The Lisbon Treaty is coming up in early October, which is extremely important to ratify but a huge distraction in terms of rebalancing the economy and overall employment.

There is also a budget coming in October where details of roughly $5billion in cuts/savings in public expenditure will be announced which will face very heavy resistance from the unions and large sections of the general public.

But of course, our headlines will also be dominated by the NAMA legislation due to be debated shortly. It is probably the most controversial and most important legislation that our country has ever debated. I’m far from convinced myself that the government are taking the correct course of action with this.

No doubt many politicians and bankers wish they’d taken a different career path.

Alas, the Irish economy is far from recovery and property prices need to fall an awful lot more before they’ll get this investor interested. However, and belatedly, other countries are positively brimming with opportunities.

For more information, please see www.torcana.com.

Kind Regards

Colin Murphy

Director

Torcana Ltd

Tags: Irish economy, Irish government, irish investor, NAMA, National Asset Management Agency
Posted in General Opinion |