Hayes: Deal for Spain banks would have huge implications for Ireland

Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes said today that a deal on recapitalising Spanish banks through the ESM fund would dramatically change things for Ireland's debt.

The Government will join France and Spain in pressing for such a deal at an EU summit in Brussels at the end of June.

Minister Brian Hayes said that the policy of recapitalising the banks through the sovereign has not worked, and a new policy through the ESM is needed.

"That is something which would have huge implications for Ireland, I would have thought," he said.

"Because if Spain is too big to fall, it requires a new departure, a new policy, a new solution.

"And I would have thought, in that context, we then have an opportunity to renegotiate on the very things we're trying to do."