Chadwick interest hit

Michael Chadwick, the Grafton Group executive chairman, has seen one of his personal investments take a further hit. Chadwick owns about 24% of Pochin's, a Manchester-based building contractor and property development company, whose shares dived last week after it released a poor set of results. The shares, which recovered a bit of ground on Friday, are down nearly 30% this year. The company's annual loss went up by nearly 75% to £16m and sales tanked by a quarter. The main reason for the loss was a further writedown in land values. Having already scrapped its interim dividend, Pochin's also cancelled the final payout because of the losses.

Torpey tops

Sitting next to Brian Lenihan at the announcement of the huge sums that will have to be poured into the Irish banks was Michael Torpey, the new head of banking at the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). It was the first public outing for Torpey since his appointment in March. Torpey is a key figure in the NTMA these days, as the agency is the primary liaison between the government and the banks. He is well-known in Irish financial circles. Before the NTMA, he was treasurer with Irish Life & Permanent and finance director of Ulster Bank. But it was at First Active where he cut his teeth as the right-hand man to Cormac McCarthy and turned the building society's fortunes around before its sale to Ulster Bank. Torpey and McCarthy did an impressive job and were rewarded by getting the senior roles in Ulster. First Active stole a march on its bigger rivals at the height of the property boom by being the first to introduce 100% mortgages to Ireland.

'Ireland is in the manure'

The well-known markets commentator David Buik of BGC Partners was in downbeat mood about Ireland this week. Buik is a regular commentator on TV screens around the world and is usually very jovial, but that disappeared when the size of the rescue package for the banks emerged. "How Ireland will manage to dig itself out of the manure will remain the eighth wonder of the world. Ireland needs growth. Where does it come from?" he mused. It was "sad" news that AIB, this "former pillar of Irish financial society", would end up in government control. On the plight of Fianna Fáil he was equally sombre. "You have to wonder how long Fianna Fáil can last," he said. When respected analysts like Buik are downcast, things look very bad.

Cardinal still circling EBS

Irish Life & Permanent may be the favourite to buy EBS, but its chief rival for the building society – Cardinal Capital Group – has not given up the fight just yet. Wilbur Ross, the US investor backing Cardinal, was speaking at a conference in Sydney last week where he said he was still "optimistic" of landing the EBS. Ross has cooled his comments on EBS since he suggested to CNBC last month that some form of debt forgiveness may be on the cards. That suggestion was derided as "absolute rubbish" to this newspaper.