Rehn: Ireland's interest rate should be lowered

Ireland's chances of securing a lower interest rate on our bailout loans have been given a welcome boost, thanks to comments made by the EU economics commissioner Ollie Rehn.

In an article in today's Sunday Business Post, Mr Rehn calls for the interest rate on Ireland's bailout package loans to be lowered.

He said the State's rescue loans should be made more flexible to help Ireland recover faster from its crisis and ensure its return to debt markets.

He called for the interest rates on Ireland's loans and the maturity of the debt to be lengthened.

Mr Rehn said Ireland provided hard evidence that the EU-IMF conditional financial support approach was working.

The Government has been asking for lower interest rates on our €85bn EU/IMF bailout loan for months, but has faced opposition from France, which wants us to raise our 12.5% rate of corporation tax in return.

The news comes before an emergency summit of eurozone leaders on Thursday, in an effort to prevent contagion from the wider debt crisis spreading to Italy and Spain.