Ireland Reputedly Printing Punts Ready for when the Eurozone Collapses

Living in Ireland, I have heard rumours repeatedly over the last few months, claiming that the Irish Government have secretly printed a hoard of Punts, as a kind of Plan B, in case the Eurozone collapses (or maybe that should be when).
I came to the conclusion that enough is enough and decided to root about a bit, but the articles I found were all about the Government distancing themselves from the claims, as you may expect! (If the population were made aware of it, then surely panic and any faith left in the euro would quickly diminish) See below:

irishnewsreview.net...

www.independent.ie...

www.guardian.co.uk...

In itself as an idea, it holds water, and even makes sense, but what would the possible repercussions be?
Thought I would throw it out there for further discussion, be interested if anyone else has any information regarding this, or for that matter, any other Eurozone country doing a similar thing.
Over to you.

I'd be shocked if the countries in Europe haven't atleast had some internal discussions about what the course of action will be if/when the Euro collapses. If some of these governments have taken action then I'd say they were only being pragmatic.

reply to post by Mufcutcakeyumyum


if i know the irish there proberley printing ,pound,dollars,euros,and a few others hahahahaha

I totally agree Erectus, and furthermore, the idea cited in the piece below makes even more sense to a lot of people. One currency for domestic, and another for external affairs:

by André Cabannes, PhD Stanford University, California, USA

July and August 2011, revised February 2012

We explain how the unique currency lead to difficulties for many countries of the eurozone, focusing on the example of Greece. The problem stems from a confusion between money for exchanges within a country and money for international trade. Greece is only the first in a series of countries where the same problem will arise: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, France. We do not advocate the withdrawal of these countries from the euro, but the use by each country of a system of two currencies, its local one and the euro. In recent decades China is the only country which applied the principle of separation of internal and external currencies and drew much benefit from it. Finally we explain why we believe that a new private international currency will appear.

The whole piece available here:

www.lapasserelle.com...

Question is I suppose, even if a country has a right to conduct its' internal affairs how it seems fit, how much pressure would be exerted from Brussels if a country actually moved to implement this?

reply to post by stuthealien


What you mean even those bright pink ones you get with 500 on them! Nice one.

By coincidence this was mentioned, only slightly, by Steve Keen on the Vincent Brown show, maybe you've seen it.

Give it a view if not;

You mean that irish gov actually starts thinking bout its own citizens?
Unlike 2 years ago, when it GAVE AWAY 30 bln quids for AIB bailout? So AIB can introduce new charges to their customers ?
Someone has to be made responsible. 30 bln, huge chunk of money for 4mln citizens country. Gave for free. How could this happened?

reply to post by ukWolf


Thank you for that, don't know how I missed that one (must've been distracted by ATS ) I'd like to hear what other economists think of that idea. If it was doable, they'd want to get their skates on!!! But I won't hold my breath...

As far as I'm concerned, government denial means nothing in this country since they denied that the IMF were coming in in 2008

In September 2011 it was flat out denial they were printing punts, but by December 2011, according to the WSJ

At least one—the Central Bank of Ireland—is evaluating whether it needs to secure additional access to printing presses in case it has to churn out new bank notes to support a reborn national currency, according to people familiar with the matter.

European nations planning for post Euro era

So it's gone from denial to evaluating to ...

People familiar with the matter??? I wonder who that might be

Then just after the Irish government denied that they were printing punts, there was a whole lot of chatter about the Germans printing Deutsche Marks. Source.

Given the current state of affairs, I would think it very wise and prudent to have a back up currency ready to roll out when (not if) the time comes. It's just a pity we don't have a wise and prudent government, so IMO I don't think they are printing punts.

reply to post by HighMaintenance


Maybe the Punt won't be needed after all;

Write-down would 'put fear of God into banks'

A BANK’S decision to write off €152,000 of mortgage debt owed by Dublin nurse Laura White will pave the way for widespread mortgage debt forgiveness, it has been claimed.

Ms White agreed a deal with Bank of Ireland on Monday to repay €18,000 of €170,000 owed on a Dublin property in a settlement similar to the new out-of-court personal insolvency arrangements proposed by the Government whereby banks agree to write down debts to a level a debtor can repay over six years.

Mr Conway said the settlement showed there was “a creeping sense of realism on the part of the banks that decisions need to be made in extreme cases like this”. The news “would put the fear of God into banks”, he said. “ The Pandora’s box is open and we will see a trend developing.”

I'll be watching out to see if a trend does develops here

Just spotted this on The Journal and thought of this thread ...

Anyone interested?? We need an 'insider'!!

This is a really good find. I bet that they are. Either way it would be better to be prepared. Good Forward thinking Ireland.

Originally posted by HighMaintenance
Just spotted this on The Journal and thought of this thread ...

Anyone interested?? We need an 'insider'!!

Love it! Nice find.
We maybe need to plant a "stooge" that'd be so cool.

And this one for a "project manager" What do you make of lines 3 and 4 in the job description?

www.jobsrus.ie...

Could be construed as anything I know but....