Downing Street Says

» Thursday, November 18, 2010

Ireland

Asked if the Prime Minister saw a request for assistance from the Irish Government in a different way to requests from any other Eurozone country, the PMS replied that he did not have anything to add to what the Chancellor had said on this yesterday. The PMS said that the Chancellor had made the point that it was in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy was successful because of the links between our own economy and theirs.

Put that it might not be in the national interest to stabilise the Portuguese or Greek economies, the PMS referred people back to the Chancellor’s statement.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that Chancellor Merkel and others were in danger of talking the Irish economy into deeper trouble, the PMS said that there was a lot of speculation about the Irish situation at the present time. The Irish Government had had to take some difficult decisions to deal with their public finances and they would make some more announcements on that shortly.

When asked if the Prime Minister had had any talks with Brian Cowen or Irish officials over the last couple of days, the PMS said that he didn’t believe there been. This was an issue that the Treasury was leading on and the PMS said that there had been a discussion over lunch at the Ecofin meeting yesterday.

Asked if help would come from bilateral aid or loans rather than an EU wide bailout, the PMS said that he would not speculate on the matter.

Asked if the Prime Minister was happy to devolve this matter to the Treasury, the PMS replied that this was a Cabinet Government.

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