Ireland eyes 100bn euros in bailout

Irish finmin recommends Cabinet to apply for EU, IMF programme

DUBLIN: Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said he would recommend to cabinet that government should apply for a financial bailout programme from the EU and the IMF. Ireland’s cabinet was to hold an emergency meeting to finalise a four-year deficit crisis plan seen as key to winning the international bailout and easing fears about the future of the euro.

There will be a meeting of the government, I will propose to my colleagues that we should formally apply for a programme,” Lenihan told RTE state radio. He did not specify the size of the bailout, but agreed it would run to billions of euros.
“Certainly, it will not be a three-figure sum,” he added.

Media reports suggested the bailout package was thought to be around 100 billion euros.
Irish officials have been holding a fourth day of tense talks with the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on financial assistance.
“Obviously, the government will have to look at the various considerations involved but as the responsible minister I believe it is important that this state continues to fund itself in a stable way,” Lenihan said.
“That economic continuity is preserved, that there is no danger to the borrowing which the state requires to make in its own interest and also, and above all — and the issue that has been highlighted this week — that our banking sector is stabilised.
“So, for all these reasons I will be recommending to the government that we should apply to a programme and open formal negotiations.” Lenihan said market conditions had been very difficult since late August.
Lenihan said the government had decided last Tuesday, before the eurozone ministers’ meeting in Brussels, “to open this process of intensive discussion about the issues”. -Reuters

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