Irish banks will need €18bn injection

STRESS tests are set to show Ireland will need to pump another €18 billion into its banks, it emerged last night.

Tense negotiations ahead of the release of the “definitive” assessment of how much Irish financial institutions need were continuing down to the wire of Thursday’s release of the true scale of Irish banking liabilities.

Ministers are pushing the European Central Bank to allow them to find some of this money by reducing payments to bondholders and reduce the amount of the €67.5bn EU-IMF loan needed.