Ireland's European partners have not yet agreed to give the country a cut in the cost of its emergency borrowings, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.
'The negotiation on the interest rate has not concluded yet,' he told the Dáil.
.
'After the meeting next week we will know whether a conclusion can be reached.'
Earlier, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said to 'expect' a drop in the interest rate Ireland is being charged for its IMF-EU bail-out.
'It is important that in defining the interest rate, debt sustainability is firmly taken into account and therefore the commisssion already some time ago proposed a reduction of the interest rate for Ireland in order to help Ireland overcome its debt burden in the same way as Greece or Portugal,' Rehn told a press conference at the European Parliament.
'I would expect that this kind of agreement could be taken shortly,' he said, in a strong hint that European Union finance ministers who will meet on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels are moving towards accepting a likely 1% drop in the rate charged on Ireland's €67.5 billiono aid package.
The formal decision rests with finance ministers from the 17 countries that share the euro and then finance ministers from the full 27 member EU.
Ireland is seeking a cut in the average interest rate of 5.8% on the EU-International Monetary Fund rescue package it was forced to accept last November.
Commissioner Rehn also said that Portugal's bail-out - agreed last month - is an ambitious but realistic programme which will enable the country to face its current economic difficulties and will pave the way for a more sustainable, more competitive economy that can create growth and jobs.
He said the interest rate on Portugal's bail-out is calculated according to the formula that was agreed some time ago in the Eurogroup.
'This means that we will follow the IMF pricing policy and we will have a small premium, and this will lead to the interest rate to be somewhere in the scale of over 5.5%, but clearly below 6%', he said.
He also said the programme deserves the support of the European Union. 'I trust that the EU finance ministers will endorse it on May 16,' he added.
