Lead story
Interest rates: Pain for homeowners and first-time buyers as rises push up mortgage payments
The decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise its interest rates to the highest level since the launch of the euro will cause financial hardship to Irish homeowners and would-be homeowners and push more people into mortgage arrears, it has been warned.
The 10th consecutive rate rise since last summer will see the bank’s main lending rate climb from 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent and immediately add around €25 on to the monthly repayments of a typical tracker mortgage holder. It came with a warning from ECB president Christine Lagarde that that while rates may have reached a peak, there is no prospect of a reversal of its aggressive monetary policy aimed at bringing inflation across the eurozone under control.
“With today’s decision, we have made sufficient contributions, under the current assessment, to returning inflation to target in a timely manner,” Ms Lagarde told reporters. “The focus is probably going to move a bit more to the duration, but it is not to say – because we can’t say – that now that we are at peak.”
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- Pain of ten consecutive interest rate rises will be felt for a long time: The decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise its interest rates to the highest level since the launch of the euro will cause financial hardship to Irish homeowners and would-be homeowners. The 10th consecutive rate rise since last summer will see the bank’s main lending rate climb to 4.5 per cent and add around €25 on to the monthly repayments of a typical tracker mortgage holder.
- Could dispute between Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ end in court?: A legal dispute between Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ heralds a new phase in the conflict between the cash-strapped State broadcaster and its former star presenter. Whether the row ends up in the Four Courts is anyone’s guess. But the two sides appear to be very far apart.
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- Happening today: Three political parties are meeting today ahead of the return of the Dáil. Fine Gael, Greens and Sinn Féin will hold party think-ins to discuss Policy and strategy.
World news
- Libya flood victims buried in mass graves as anger builds over failed defences: Rescue workers were burying thousands of victims of floods in eastern Libya in mass graves as they struggled to cope with a disaster that has claimed thousands of lives and left many thousands more missing
- ‘We saw our friends and neighbours dying around us, and we couldn’t do anything’: As two dams collapsed and storm waters tore through the streets of the Libyan city of Derna, carrying bodies and buildings with them, Ruba Hatem Yassine, her pregnant sister and several older relatives clambered up a neighbour’s ladder to the roof to flee the grasp of the rushing flood below.
- China looks to Ireland for baby-making tips: After the scorching heat of July and the floods, smog and clamminess of August, September has brought cooler air to Beijing for the start of the city’s favourite season. The pavements are alive again as restaurant diners emerge from months sheltering in the air-conditioned chill indoors to take up the tables outside. Denis Staunton reports from Beijing.
The Big Read
Kevin Potts interview: IRFU chief focused on finding the cash to grow the game: The last time I sat down with Kevin Potts, he was masterminding Ireland’s bid for Rugby World Cup 2023. In the event, Ireland lost out to France. Eight years on, he is now chief executive of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the man charged with overseeing the game in Ireland and keeping its finances in order.
Culture and Opinion
- Reverse snobbery about rugby is every bit as nauseating as plain old snobbery: Ever before the Rugby World Cup kicked off in France, the contempt for the game that prevails among swathes of other-sports lovers, soccer fans in particular, has been a topic for discussion. Panellists on Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder before the opening ceremony said that, in some quarters, the wish to see Johnny Sexton and his team fail to lift the World Cup is even stronger than Tadgh Furlong’s gluteus maximus, writes Justine McCarthy.
- My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer of TV viewing: For the past month, I’ve been eking out the final few episodes of And Just Like That…, the Sex and the City reboot. Half an episode here, 10 minutes of an episode there . . the show hooks me in with a cosy nostalgia, meaning it is hard to turn away, writes Aoife Barry.
Sports
- ‘Where the hell did all that come from?’ Andy Farrell unhappy with Mack Hansen non-story: Speculation that Mack Hansen’s initial exclusion from the match-day squad for Ireland’s World Cup opener against Romania was due to him being a naughty boy can safely be filed in the non-story category. That it was evidently much ado about nothing was reiterated by Andy Farrell on foot of him announcing the team to play Tonga at the squad’s new hotel base on the outskirts of Nantes, with Hansen named to start
- Why did Vera Pauw’s training methods suddenly only become an issue in the summer of 2023?: When she spoke to RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue a fortnight ago, Vera Pauw vowed that “this will be the only interview that I will give” in relation to the ending of her time as Republic of Ireland manager. The Dutch woman is, though, never one to go down without a fight, so it remains to be seen if she will respond to the Football Association of Ireland’s reasoning for not renewing her contract.
Martyn Turner
Letters to the Editor
Knee-jerk actions no substitute for long-term strategy
Sir, – Talk of selling the site RTÉ is based at in Montrose in Dublin is very premature and cannot be considered without answering the question as to how much it will cost to relocate to similar facilities elsewhere. Where will they go? How much will that cost?
Especially as any land which might be considered is likely to rocket in price. Note that I don’t say “value”. Simply selling off the family silver without first fixing the family’s spending problems won’t solve anything. – Yours, etc, David Doran
Podcast / Video
In the News podcast: Too much Tubridy: what teenagers think of the news media
Crosswords/Puzzles
TV review of the Day
- Ghosts of Baggotonia: Homage to a lost Dublin: Dublin is a city where the ghosts can sometimes seem to outnumber the living. That’s true of the often half-deserted town centre – but also of Baggot Street and its hinterland. And it is here, along the redbrick boulevard from St Stephen’s Green to Ballsbridge, that Ghosts of Baggotonia (RTÉ One, Thursday, 11.30pm) director Alan Gilsenan alights for a brooding 90 minutes of free-form nostalgia, writes Ed Power.