Standard & Poor's (S&P), a ratings agency, on Wednesday downgraded Ireland's long-term sovereign credit rating by one notch, taking it to AA-.

The ratings agency said Dublin's banking sector intervention would turn out to be more costly than previously thought. "We have lowered the long-term rating on Ireland because we believe that the fiscal costs to the government of supporting the Irish banking system will be significantly higher than what we had expected when we last lowered the rating in