13/12/2013 World Business Report

not happen. He also ruled out any discussion or debate about staging

the vote. Time for World Business Report.

A new dawn for Ireland as it exerts its bail out programme. But skies

are far from clear for this once crisis hit economy. An end in sight

for Washington's budget deadlock as Congress clears a two-year spending

deal. Welcome to the programme. In just a

moment, more questions about working conditions at Apple suppliers in

Taiwan. But first, it has taken three years, 85 billion euros and

one of the deepest recessions suffered by any country in Europe,

but on Sunday, Ireland becomes the first crisis hit EU member to exit

its bail out programme. In return for its bail out, Dublin has had to

impose repeated spending cuts and tax rises in an attempt to get its

financial crisis under control. Now, it has returned to growth,

unemployment is falling and the IMF has praised the rescue programme as

one that future bail out countries can learn from. But seven

consecutive austerity budgets have not resolved all of the country's

problems. Many in Ireland saw it as a national humiliation, a bail out

by other European governments and the IMF as the costs brought on by

recession and bank rescues proved too much for the Irish government.

Now, three years on, the bail out programme is about to finish. That's

partly down to an Irish economic recovery, with companies like this

crane hire this must, seeing turnover picking up. -- this crane

hire business recovering. It has survived and is growing once again.

We are optimistic. We have invested in new equipment and we believe

there is a need for it. There is a lot of development in that area.

Island is returning... The market rate on ten year bonds had soared

during the crisis, just like in Greece and Portugal. Since then,

Irish borrowing costs have been falling. It has come at a price.

There were protests and demonstrations as austerity was

implemented. Deficit reduction has gone according to plan. The Deputy

Prime Minister gave me his perspective on Ireland's economic

story. Three years ago, this country was losing 7000 jobs every month.

Now, we are creating 5000 new jobs every month. However, we have more

to do because we do have high unemployment, particularly among

young people, so we have more to do to create more jobs and get our

economy going. Coming out of the bail out does not mean that the

problems are over. Far from it. Ireland must demonstrate to

international investors that it can demonstrate gross and deal with the

historic legacy of debt. And at Ireland's leading university in

Dublin, students acknowledge there are many challenges ahead for their

generation. In another ten years, we will think we are OK and we will

return to the downturn. There is a lot of debt to pay back. There will

be quite a bit of time before Ireland is able to function as

normal again. Ireland has come a long way but few will argue that a

full recovery is just around the corner. It's a political battle that

forced the US government to all but shut down for two weeks and brought

it to the brink of a catastrophic debt default but there could now be

an end in sight, at least for now. It's the Washington deadlock between

Democrats and Republicans over government spending. Late on

Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a two-year

spending plan designed to prevent future government shutdown. The

legislation cleared on a vote of 332 to 94. Final passengers expect next

week in the Senate but it does not address that other issue of

America's debt ceiling. Thank you for joining us. What do you make of

this budget deal? Will it prevent further government shutdowns in the

future? I believe it will for the next few years. Essentially, the

Democrat and Republican leaders have decided... As I said earlier, it

does not deal with this very difficult issue of America's debt

ceiling. That's still some ink that much -- that needs to be dealt with.

It's not like we have the money to pay the debt ceiling. We have the

money. If Congress wants to avoid the issue, they can. The other

issues surrounding this is that it raises concerns that as soon as next

week, we might see the Federal Reserve start to scale back

quantitative easing. That's not good news for investors, is it? Sooner or

later, it must reduce quantitative easing. It cannot continue printing

billions of dollars every month to prop up the US economy and some

economies in Europe that depend on these low interest rates because

it's all this money sitting on the books... That will turn into

inflation sooner or later. It has to ease back at some point. What do you

make of what happened? Was it a success? Are you pleased with this

deal? I don't think anybody in America is pleased. I'm a

conservative. I would have liked more spending cuts. My friends

living next door would have liked more taxes and more spending. But

America was built on demises and we have to get used to doing it again.

Just like your government needs to compromise from time to time, so

does ours. Republicans and Democrats may have different constituencies,

but they will agree that they were not sent to Washington to quarrel

like small children. Thank you for joining us. More questions about

working conditions in the factories that make Apple products. Apple has

sent medical experts to a plant in Shanghai, which makes iPhones,

following the death of a 15 -year-old worker. This is a very sad

story. Absolutely. Working conditions at Apple's factories have

been raised again. However, according to the medical experts

sent to the factory which makes iPhones and iPads, the death of this

young worker was not caused by the conditions but because of

pneumonia. On the issue of the age of the worker, Apple said that the

employee used his 21 -year-old cousin's identification to apply for

the job at the Shanghai factory, so it did not know that he was

underage. Apple says it has taken various measures in response to

questions on whether its products are made in what amounts to

sweatshops. It says it has a team working with the factory to ensure

that conditions meet high standards. The technology giant has been

scrutinised over its working conditions in 2010, after

approximately one dozen suicides at its other assembly factory. It

commissioned an investigation of its Chinese apply factories last year.

And in a report on Thursday, it was revealed that working conditions now

complied with standards. Three Chinese factories operated by

Apple's largest manufacturing subsidiaries have limited working

hours. JP Morgan could be heading for another massive legal pay-out.

According to reports, the investment bank is working with US authorities

on a $2 billion settlement over its relationship with the fraudster

Bernie made. -- with a fraudster convicted of selling bad mortgage

securities. Looking at the Asian markets, now. They have posted

tentative gains on Friday as investors prepare for that US

Federal Reserve decision next week on whether to reduce monetary

stimulus. Thank you for joining us. Goodbye.

The government says its strategy to tackle