Ireland Accepts EU, IMF Bailout Package
Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Ireland formally accepted over the weekend the international bailout offer of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. After hedging for a few days and insisting Dublin had sufficient financial resources, Irish authorities gave in to pressure and asked for a loan.
According to reports, the bailout would be $115.5 billion (77 billion pounds). It would be a three-year loan to be used mainly to rescue Ireland’s debt-ridden banks. The U.K. and Sweden are considering extending additional loans to Dublin, aside from the $115.5 billion bailout.
For this bailout, British taxpayers would shell out $11.5 billion (7 billion pounds), at a time when the country itself is implementing tough austerity measures which would lead to the loss of 500,000 public sector jobs over five years.
Britain is bent on assisting Ireland because of the $225 billion (150 billion pounds) exposure of British banks to Ireland.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen asked residents Sunday to support the loan. EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the bailout seeks to protect the financial stability of the continent. With the bailout, Irish banks will be restructured to make them smaller, while some analysts forecast some financial institutions would be nationalized.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said Dublin has a running deficit of more than $24 billion (16 billion pounds), which the Irish government could not afford to finance given present market rates and amid issues of solvency of Irish banks. He said the bailout money would mainly serve as a standby fund, which may not 100 percent be necessarily used.
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