>they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago:
You have that the wrong way around.
The Irish taxpayers, unwillingly, covered the massive gambling losses of private individuals and companies(including a group of businesses called "banks") who were playing in the (German-lead US-style) light-touch bank de-regulation "bank-casinos" of Europe. The "casinos" in Ireland had a disproportionate share of that action at approx 40% of the EU total.
The total cost to the Irish tax-payer was approx 65 billion euro I've heard.
We bailed them out using money we _borrowed_ from them and have paid back in full (recently i think?) with interest.
Thats like borrowing money from your loan shark to cover his poker losses.