Ireland’s finance minister warned on Tuesday that the nation faced “the challenge of [its] life”, as he slapped higher taxes on the middle classes in an emergency budget aimed at tackling the spiralling economic crisis.
Brian Lenihan outlined plans to set up a national asset management agency to take over an estimated €80bn-€90bn of bad loans extended by local domestic banks to developers and property companies that now look as if they will not be able to repay.
