Monday newspaper round-up: Ireland to get €85-90bn bail-out

22nd Nov 2010 06:27

The debt crisis gripping the eurozone claimed its second victim in six months on Sunday night when European finance ministers agreed to a request from Ireland for a multibillion-euro emergency rescue, the FT reports.The bail-out is expected to total €80bn-€90bn and will include contributions from the UK and Sweden, according to people briefed on the discussions. But the deal may not be concluded until the end of November because the parties are still negotiating the conditions attached to the aid.After an emergency Cabinet meeting in Dublin, Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach, said his country had formally asked for a rescue package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. EU ministers endorsed the request, saying that it was "warranted to safeguard financial stability in the EU and the euro area". It represented a U-turn by Ireland, which insisted last week that it needed no bailout, the Times adds.George Osborne is set to water down plans to force disclosure of bank bonus payments above £1m, in a move that will delight the City but sets up a political clash with business secretary Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats. The chancellor has been lobbied by senior bankers who claim that if Britain introduces more pay transparency unilaterally it could put the City at a disadvantage and lead to some banks shifting activity to New York or other financial centres, the FT reports.Detailed disclosure of what bankers earn is becoming less likely in Britain after the policy's author, Sir David Walker, called for the plan to be put on hold. His comments come as the Government faces rising pressure from British banks not to go ahead with pay band disclosure for those with the highest earnings on the grounds that no other country is planning similar changes, potentially putting London at a big disadvantage to rival financial centres, the Times also reports.Britain's two biggest cigarette makers have launched a vitriolic attack on the Government's plan to force them to use plain brown packets, saying the move would be "like Christmas" for counterfeiters. British American Tobacco, whose brands include Dunhill, Lucky Stripe and Kent, said the policy ? intended to remove the glamour from smoking to stop young people taking up the habit ? may have the opposite effect, the Times reports.Orange and T-Mobile will move to subsidise the cost of buying an iPad before Christmas as the two networks, which have 30m consumers between them, look to tap into the growing appetite for tablet computers. Everything Everywhere, which owns Orange and T-Mobile, will be the first operator in the world to devise a scheme under which consumers can buy the iPad ? which costs up to £700 for the top model ? on a long-term contract in the same way they buy mobile phones. It will sell iPads direct from its website and its retail stores, the Times reports.The US Air Force has admitted to mistakenly sending the wrong documents to arch-rivals EADS and Boeing at a key moment in the tender contest for new aerial refuelling tankers, giving away sensitive information about each other's bidding plans. The Pentagon said the mishap was a "clerical error" that did not favour one side or the other, the Telegraph reports.Hopes that the VAT increase in January will prompt consumers to bring forward major purchases into this year have been hit after Markit said attitudes to buying costly items worsened in November at the fastest rate since it began its survey of household finances in February 2009, the Telegraph reports.Britain's manufacturers are confident they will be able to fill the "growth gap" as the public sector contracts. The Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) says its members - 6,000 industrial companies of all sizes - are "well placed" to respond to the Prime Minister's call to "create and innovate; invest and grow", the Independent reports.John Lewis has said its online sales will smash through the £500m barrier this year, as it delivered another stellar weekly performance in its department stores. The retailer posted internet revenues of £389.5m in the year to 30 January and its online sales are up by more than 40% so far in 2010, the Independent reports.Senior executives at Rok, the failed building group, were warned the company's public statements risked misleading investors by failing to identify the extent or source of its problems. The board of directors was contacted by Ashley Martin, at the time the suspended finance director, after Rok released a trading statement on August 11 that said it was "confident about the outlook" for its core maintenance and improvements business, the FT reports.