Ireland's bailout boosts banks, inflames taxpayers

DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland's international bailout boosted its bank stocks Monday but outraged many hard-pressed taxpayers, who questioned why the government's pension reserves must be ravaged as part of a deal that burdens the whole country with the mistakes of a rich elite.

Shares in Ireland's banks rose sharply as markets were encouraged by the bailout's immediate focus on injecting €10 billion into the cash-strapped lenders out of a total of €67.5 billion ($89 billion) in loans.

But the Irish were shocked by a key condition for the rescue — that the government use €17.5 billion of its own cash and pension reserves to shore up its public finances, which have been overwhelmed by …