EU ministers meet to finalise Ireland bailout
European Union finance minister are meeting today in Brussels in a bid to finalise the 85bn euro bailout for the Irish economy.
The Irish government said it expected the deal to be finalised today. “The government met last night and were briefed on the progress which had been made,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“The government decided to proceed to conclude a programme on that basis and authorised the minister for finance to finalise the negotiations at a meeting of the EU finance ministers in Brussels this afternoon.”
On Friday, the euro fell near a two-month low amid fears that other nations in the Eurozone would follow Ireland and Greece into financial crisis. It is hoped a deal will be in place before the markets open tomorrow.
The meeting comes the day after 50,000 people joined a march through Dublin to protest at the cuts and tax rises expected in the Irish Budget on 7 December.
Irish ministers played down suggestions that the interest rate charged on the loan could be as high as 6.7 per cent – higher than the 5.2 per cent interest Greece are paying on their loan.
From crash to cuts: find out more about the Ireland bailout with the Channel 4 News special report.
Communications minister Eamon Ryan said “I think that figure was inaccurate and I think it was unfortunate it went out there because I’m sure it scared a hell of a lot of people.
“There are still negotiations going on on that sort of level of detail. It’s not fixed yet and we’ll have to wait and see until it’s actually done.”
Arriving in Brussels for the meeting, UK Chancellor George Osborne insisted that Briatin would “play its part” in helping to restore stability to the eurozone.
“We are going to discuss today details of the Irish package,” he said. “I hope we are going to make some very good progress.
“Obviously it’s in everyone’s interest and in Britain’s national interest that we get some economic stability in Ireland, indeed across the eurozone, because Britain trades a great deal with Ireland and it is in the whole of Europe’s interest that we bring this matter to a close, get some stability, get our economies going.”
France’s Economy Minister Christine Lagarde, said the package just needed “a little fine-tuning to be done, notably on interest rates.”
Follow Economics Editor Faisal Islam's coverage of the Ireland debt crisis here.