The Irish government has embarked on a bold throw of the dice to rescue its nation's banking system and restore its economy to a sound footing. It could be a decade before anyone knows if the venture has succeeded. In the meantime, there are risks aplenty, many of them outside the government's control.
Saddled with billions of euros in bad loans to developers who paid exorbitant prices for speculative real estate and to consumers convinced that a pot of gold awaited them at the end of the property rainbow, and undermined by failures of corporate governance, risk management and regulation, Ireland's banking system is in urgent need of reform and recapitalisation.
