Moody's cut Ireland's credit rating

Reuters
"Some of the euro zone's toughest spending cuts last year gave Ireland respite from the market assault on other peripheral euro zone countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal. But Dublin's fiscal discipline has been all but overshadowed by fresh rounds of bad news from the banks. The cost of bailing out nationalised Anglo Irish Bank last year gave Ireland a budget deficit of 14 percent of gross domestic product, the highest in Europe, and this could rise to 20 percent this year, the state-funded Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said last week ."