Ireland is not going tits up it has gone tits up. This was due to poor fiscal management by the Government which relied on taxes from the sale of houseing units. They encouraged and approved the property bubble which seen house prices rise in 10 years from 40 K to almost 400k. This was unsustainable and while a low corporation tax does encourage companies to come here the amount of direct corporate tax is extremely small. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1025/1224281951684.html It is the taxes paid by well paid employees that make up the bulk of were the money comes from. Ireland is a small country with a small tax base yet we insisted on having a huge public sector whose wage bill actually amounts to the income tax take of the country. The Government lied to the public and decried sceptics who suggested that this was unsustainable long term, with the prime minister actually suggesting that these sceptics should go and kill themselves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjGSfuSQpA . By the way the current prime minister of ireland is paid more that Sarkosy, Merkel and Obama combined. It is due to inept politicians that we find ourselves having to take money from the IMF/EU. By tying the banks to the Irish state with the worst decision to guarantee the banks in 2008 we were left with no choice but to keep the lying bankers, who squandered and gambled this countries money away, propped up until finally Europe said enough is enough. The public sector complained in early 2000's that they were not getting their part of the Celtic tiger and the Govt. agreed to allow benchmarking of salaries with the private sector. Pandering to the whims of the unions this allowed the people who would benefit most from benchmarking to set what the salaries should be. No account of the fact that a public sector job is a job for life was taken into account or the low prsi they pay or the pensions that are linked to current salaries. This would make the calculations to difficult we were told. So now we wait for the EMF and the EU to tell us what way to run our fiscal policies. The only way this country can ever repay the monies owed is if corporation tax remains as it is otherwise there will be no one earning any money to pay this bill back.