German govt promises to work towards sustainability for Irish debt deal

The German government has promised to work closely with Ireland to improve the sustainability of the Irish bailout deal.

The statement follows earlier comments by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which she appeared to rule out the use of EU money to fund an Irish bank debt deal.

A spokesperson for the Taoiseach has said today's comments were a reaffirmation of a commitment to improve Ireland's bailout programme.

The comments made by Ms Merkel yesterday cast fresh doubt over a bank debt deal for Ireland.

She said EU funds would not be used to pay for banks that had already been recapitalized. The remarks were made in response to a question about Spain - but many have taken them to include Ireland too.

But today the German government has issued a further statement promising to work closely with Ireland to improve the sustainability of the bailout programme.

A spokesman for the Taoiseach said the statement was a firm reaffirmation of the promise to improve the Irish deal.

He said there is a standalone commitment to make the Irish programme more sustainable.