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THE GOVERNMENT HAS been granted a High Court order allowing it to complete the takeover of Irish Life, the life assurance business of Irish Life and Permanent, for €1.3 billion.
The court granted the order this afternoon under powerful legislation introduced by former minister Brian Lenihan in 2010.
The move means the government can complete the €70 billion recapitalisation of the banking sector required under the stress tests performed last year.
The takeover follows the State’s takeover of Irish Life’s parent, Irish Life & Permanent, last year.
Today’s order follows the collapse of a proposed sale of the life assurance company to Canada Life last winter; that sale had been expected to raise around €1 billion for the state, but the sale was delayed as a result of market volatility.
Today’s sale means the two bodies can now be considered separate legal entities, and the sale of Irish Life can continue without any impact on the operations of the rest of IL&P.
It also means that Irish Life & Permanent’s regulatory capital is increased by €1.3 billion.
Although the government already owned the parent company, proceeding with the takeover via a High Court order means that the consent of any other IL&P shareholders is not required.
In a statement this afternoon IL&P said the sale would be completed on April 13 with formal completion by the end of June, and stressed that the takeover would have no impact on bank or life policyholders, and that their existing policies, terms and conditions will continue to apply.
Its chairman Alan Cook insisted the court order was a necessary step to complete the recapitalisation of the group’s banking arm, Permanent TSB, and would safeguard the future of the Irish Life life assurance business.
He also stressed the group’s “gratitude to the Irish Government and the Irish taxpayer for the support they have provided to the Bank”.
“Our focus now must be on minimising any further call on the Irish taxpayer and maximising the potential to build sustainable, customer focused businesses which in time can repay the taxpayer for the support we have been given.”
The nominal €1.3 billion price for the takeover is equivalent to the value of Irish Life’s net assets as of last June.
A Department of Finance spokesman yesterday said the next round of banking stress tests will continue as planned in autumn of this year.
This is despite the decision of the European Banking Authority to delay its own tests until early 2013.
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All well and good to making jokes but judging by the picture, the ewe suffered an awful death. If your dog is off leash or out of your control and in a field where sheep are, then it’s not going to end well if they’re spotted by a farmer with a loaded gun! Your dog and YOUR fault if it gets shot.
@selfsustainable:
Unless the dog owner also owns the live stock then they have no place having a dog loose around sheep or cattle, its irresponsible to do so.
Its not a big ask to expect dog owners to have dogs on leads when around other animals,
I wouldn’t for a second leave my dog loose while walking on mountains or farm land unless I owned the land or livestock on it.
That’s a given Barry.
Absolutely selfsustainable. People have no idea the damage their darling dogs can do to sheep. I’ve seen it first hand. People need to be more responsible & not let their dogs just wander as they please.
Never the fault of dogs. Always their owners.
@@UK:
Farmer is still justified in shooting the dog if its not on a lead though.
I say this as a dog owner.
Anybody leaving their dog loose around lifestock they don’t own is an idiotic,
Unless it’s a Pitt Bull. Devil dogs. Nobody to blame but bad doggy genes maybe.
Unfortunately farmers will shoot with no mercy, and a dog will be shot that was doing no harm. As a avid walker and we always bring the dogs on leads it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who let their pets roam freely. Some of the owners should be on leads.
@Paul Somers: If a farmer’s livestock is threatened they are right to shoot.
@Paul Somers: Some people are able to train their dogs that they have more control with their mouths then they will ever have on a lead.
@Paul Summers: even well trained dogs should be on a lead around livestock. It’s just responsible dog ownership. Sheep can come to harm just by panicking on sight of a dog, especially if the flock has previously been attacked. Dogs should be nowhere near flocks of sheep close to lambing time as the risk of sheep aborting their lambs is too great.
@Angry Gaminour dogs As a dog owner I don’t believe your stupid comment, our dogs and previous dogs would never be good enough to allow/free off lead where therr are livestock. Regardless it is simple sense to keep dogs under your control by having it on a lead unless you own the land end of story. Our dogs are complete pets but they are still dogs.
Sounds like the work of “the beast” to me… They say it’s as big as four cats and has a retractable leg so it can leap up at you better and it lights up at night and it’s got four ears, two are for listening and the other two are kind of back up ears and it’s claws are as big as cups and for some reason it’s got a tremendous fear of stamps, Mrs Doyle was telling me it’s got magnets on it’s tail, so if you’re made of metal, it can attach itself to you and instead of a head, it’s got four arses.
What’s more, it’s yawn apparently sounds like Liam Neeson chasing a load of hens around inside a barrel.
This is why farmers have the right to shoot dogs on their land
I never allow my dog off a lead unless she is in an enclosed area where there are no other animals except her. In otherwords the house, back garden
Sheep kills are awful but to ask dog walkers to stay off the 3000 sq km of Wicklow mountains including 200 sq km of national park is OTT hysteria. And I live up here. And walk my well trained well disciplined dogs off their leads on national park land.
@All Hail Bukowski: they’re not asking them not to walk, they’re asking them to be responsible and put the dogs on leads when near other animals, that’s not a big ask to ask folk to use their brain.
People are not being asked to stay off the land All Hail but simply to keep dogs on the lead. Obviously not all dogs are well trained.
Doh, they are but that’s overkill. Keep them on a lead.
I always let my dog off the lead when I’m walking him. He goes off by himself sometimes and chases things, and I can hear him barking far away. He joins me agin after five or ten minutes though, so it’s fine
@calvin candie: How stupid can you get? Hard to believe you admit your off lead dog goes off chasing things, did you even read the article?
It’s the dog walkers that are vicious! They have to stop those dog walkers. The dogs are fine.
Bear Grylls?
@Diarmuid: nope, FENTON!
It definitely wasn’t my Chihuahua anyways…..
Sheep is going to be killed anyway. Farmers annoyed that dog beat them to it.
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