Ireland could face €220m bill to help bail out Greece

IRELAND could be asked to contribute over €220 million to an EU fund to help bail out Greece.

Discussions continued late last night ahead of today’s summit of EU leaders dealing with how to provide finance for Greece if it fails to raise the €20bn it needs over the next two months.

Ireland agrees with Germany that the International Monetary Fund must be the first port of call for the stricken economy. However, it accepts the eurozone must also play a role and provide a line of bilateral loans that can be called on if needed.

EU sources said the sums being discussed were in the region of €50 billion, with €28bn from the IMF and the balance of €22bn from the eurozone countries.

While nothing was agreed last night, sources said Ireland could be expected to contribute about 1% of this sum, which would amount to €220m.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance refused to comment on the figures, saying it was a hypothetical situation just now.

It was not clear whether Ireland would make a case to be excluded given the perilous state of the country’s finances. Sources said Ireland would not be the only country to be “extremely hesitant” in providing loans to Greece.

It is also known that Ireland would want to ensure that the IMF could not add its own notoriously tough conditions to any loan to a eurozone country and would want it managed jointly by the IMF and the European Commission.

MEPs, including the Liberals, to which Fianna Fáil belongs, said the eurozone must provide support for Greece rather than resort to the IMF.

Labour MEP Proinsas De Rossa said he believed Ireland should contribute to a fund.

“It’s a case of ‘but for the grace of God, there go I’. And if we allow the speculators to pick off Greece, they can come for Ireland next. The only way is to stick together,” he said.