The EU, European Central Bank and the IMF have concluded negotiations with Irish authorities on a bailout and the deal is ready to be signed off by EU finance ministers, EU sources said yesterday.
“The negotiations are complete and a package has been agreed on the ground,” a source involved in the discussions said.
“EU finance ministers are now ready to sign off on it, but I think they will also want to discuss some of the finer details and add some political impetus to what has been agreed in Ireland,” he said.
Another source confirmed the deal was in the region of 85 billion euros (US$115 billion), but would not provide further details.
STICKING POINT
A major sticking point is the interest rate that will be charged and the term of the loans, which are expected to be between three and six years.
The deal will make the Irish Republic the second eurozone country to receive a bailout in Europe’s crippling debt crisis.
Finance ministers from the 16-nation eurozone were scheduled to meet in Brussels yesterday to sign off on the package, which they hope will help Dublin cover bank debts and bridge a massive budget deficit, while also preventing the debt contagion spreading to Portugal and Spain.
-European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, told Europe 1 radio he hoped EU finance ministers would unanimously agree to support Ireland, which has been under intense pressure to accept a bailout despite repeatedly saying in recent weeks that it did not need one.
European leaders are hoping that the package for Ireland, drawn from a 750 billion euro rescue fund agreed by the EU in May this year, will convince financial markets that the crisis can be contained and spare Portugal and Spain — the next two countries identified as potentially at risk — from pressure.
ONGOING SAGA
Debt worries have driven the -crisis for the past year almost -without respite. It has severely dented confidence in the 12-year-old euro currency and produced what amounts to a showdown between European politicians and financial markets.
Meanwhile, a new poll indicates that most Irish people want the world’s banks to take a share of losses as part of a massive EU-IMF bailout of Ireland.
The Sunday Independent poll in Dublin says 57 percent favor a loan deal that requires senior lenders to Irish banks — chiefly other banks in Britain, Germany and the US — to suffer partial write-offs on their investments.
The remaining 43 percent polled agree with the existing EU policy that defaulting on debts would cause unacceptable shockwaves in global banking.
The paper said results were based on telephone polling of 500 people, with a 3 percent margin of error.
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