# % of Ireland that is Irish owned?



## sinbadsailor (16 Feb 2010)

With the Irish Government favouring foreign-direct investment to save the country and NAMA taking control over a huge amount of 
Irish land, just what percentage of this country is still actually under Irish Control. By this I mean that at the end of the
day Ireland owes money, but do we really know who these bond holders actually are underneath all these managed
funds and investment vehicles. I woud be worried if a large part of Ireland was coming under US control for example.

As for the foreign direct investment, I can see this as a massive amount of our money that we let leave the country, virtually
untaxed for the sake of jobs created by large US corporations. Even the likes of our insurance industry is being globalised
(read Americanised) with Hibernian as an example. Is this not just a more civilised way of controlling a country?
The only difference being that we are not being bombed first and then offered building contracts to rebuild our cities
and give us utility services?

I guess looking at the landscape of our young people fleeing in the thousands and the rest of us locked here because
of debt, it looks very grim for our future?

Opinions?


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## camel (16 Feb 2010)

Was the UK worried over the past few years when big-shot Irish developers snapped up huge chunks on Bond and Oxford street in central London. Not to mention retail/commercial center after center all over Europe, I doubt it. There were transaction costs involved that largely went to the local government. So depending on the angle you look at foreign direct investment, you could see it as money entering the country, or money leaving. It's the nature of globalisation.


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## sinbadsailor (16 Feb 2010)

The scale of that kind of investment is a bit smaller than I was getting at. I'm talking about a countries debt, like Ireland and Nama. Once you get through the paperwork, who is the owner of Irelands massive debt? Who is paid the interest?

And as for the foreign investment, the likes of google, facebook, now globally owned insurance companies etc are driving Irish policy on communication, privacy and financial data. When the likes of Hibernian were taken over, their data center was also included over so our personal data is now leaving the country.

Google and facebook are changing the privacy landscape on a daily basis with personal privacy now seen as a crime.

It just concerns me that we as a country are not choosing to be globalised, it is fact being imposed on us slowly and in such a manner as to seem natural but with each passing year, we slowly lose more and more control over how Irish people choose to live and instead just fall into line with the US way of thinking?

Who are the bondholders for Irish debt? They essentially run the country?


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## DerKaiser (16 Feb 2010)

sinbadsailor said:


> Who are the bondholders for Irish debt? They essentially run the country?


 
It's difficult to track. I believe our banks are taking on a lot of Irish Government issued debt. Irish Pension funds probably own a good chunk of Irish Government debt also.

But the banks are being funded by the ECB. I presume the ECB must be funded by depositors, perhaps mainly from Germany?

As for increasing globalisation, I think it's an inevitability. It's nothing new. Go back to the 1840s and you'll find globalisation was worse for this country than it is now.

Just an update - Britain are our biggest subscribers (hopefully they won't demand all of our corn in return....)
http://www.independent.ie/business/...s-to-dent-demand-for-irish-bonds-2066456.html


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## Protocol (17 Feb 2010)

*Diversified holdings of Irish Government Bonds*

Irish Government bonds have moved substantially into the hands of international investors since the introduction of the euro. Non-resident holdings have increased to an estimated 82 percent of the total outstanding from 22 per cent in 1998
[broken link removed]


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