Ireland is officially fucked

[Cain]

I think more nations should do that, full stop,

Unfortunately, I think there is a clause in international law which means decisions made by the state are legally binding, regardless of the government in question.  I know this doesn't explain Bush suddenly abandoning laws against torture, or Sarkozy turning into Petain and deporting Gypsies despite the EU telling him not to, but at the same time, it does explain why Haiti is being made to pay off debt accumulated by Baby Doc and other similar things.  The power disparity between various nations may have something to do with it, and Ireland might be able to deploy that earlier mentioned international leverage to its benefit...we shall see.

There is also the problem that, in most countries, politicians aren't really adversely affected by spending cuts anyway, so while they may make noises for electoral purposes, they really don't give a fuck when in power, and are likely to go "whoops, our hands are tied, things are much worse than we thought", exactly like the Lib Dems did five minutes after entering the coalition over here.

[Faust]

It is also possible that the eu could step in and say restrictions on Ireland affect the whole eu and to make the deal with them. But I can't imagine we are europes favourite country right now, I don't see them being all that helpful unless one of the IMF sanctions goes completely against some of the commitments we made to the Eu.

[Cain]

Which doesn't seem likely, as the EU is generally well disposed, on an ideological level, to the IMFs work.

Also, the EU can, at least, actually afford to bail out Ireland now.  You're certainly going to get treated better than Spain well, if financial troubles end up flaring there.

[Faust]

Greece has been utterly crippled post it's bailout. But that was mostly because they lied about all their figures, embezzled and cheated everyone.
It's worrying when our best bet is another country needing a bailout after us so that the heat will be taken off us.

[Cain]

Well, the EU literally cannot afford a Spanish bailout.  Portugal, fine, but Spain...if that house of cards comes crashing down, the EU will be in serious dire straits.  Ireland, at least, is a solvable problem.