Ireland obtains 85 billion euro aid package from EU

European ministers ratified a 85 billion euro bailout package for Ireland in Brussels on Sunday, a day after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dublin to voice opposition to financial intervention from the EU.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Ireland's bailout was formally announced Sunday at 85 billion euros (113 billion dollars), 10 billion of which is for "immediate recapitalisation" and 25 billion for contingency support to its banking sector, the head of the Eurogroup said.

Finance ministers from the 16 countries that share the euro currency, plus non-euro Britain, Denmark and Sweden, each of whom are making bilateral loans available to Dublin, "unanimously agreed today to grant financial assistance" to Ireland, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.

The programme of loans, with 50 billion euros set aside for "covering budget financing needs," and "rests on three pillars," he said.

These are: an "immediate strengthening" of Ireland's banking system, an "ambitious fiscal adjustment" in order to bring Ireland's 32 percent of GDP annual deficit this year back within EU norms, of three percent, "by 2015," as well as broader economic reforms "in particular on the labour market."