Bailout in prospect - A deal must bring reform

THE minutiae may be left to another day but it seems as close to certain as we can be that Ireland — and possibly Portugal — is on the verge of having to accept some sort of an EU bailout to try to staunch the haemorrhaging caused by our banking crisis.

As so many senior EU voices stressed yesterday this situation can no longer be seen only in an Irish context but rather as a possible threat to the eurozone.

In those dreadful circumstances we may still like to imagine ourselves sovereign but our patient and supportive EU friends may not bother even with the pretence any more. Despite assurances from one minister after another — and it is very hard to belive that those who gave them really believed them — the EU seems to be at the point every exasperated parent eventually reaches with a foolish and difficult child.

Though it is just a sideshow of quickly decreasing relevance it is difficult to see why senior politicians would try to convince us that all of the evidence around us, and all of the EU commentary, was wide of the mark and that their denials were the real truth.

If a rescue package — call it what you will — is put together for Ireland it will be a wasted opportunity unless it is accompanied by the kinds of reforms that, had they been achieved years ago, might have helped us avoid this humiliation.

It is ironic too that as the Finance Minister was in Brussels meeting with European colleagues to discuss the bank-inspired crisis the only Irish banker to face a judge over his professional conduct was in a courtroom, not in Dublin, but in Boston.