The President of the European Central Bank, Jean Claude Trichet, has stressed the importance of the Government taking steps to fix its public finances.
Speaking at the bank's monthly press conference, Mr Trichet said: ‘It is extremely important that the Irish Government takes all the appropriate decisions that would permit that highly credible path towards sustainability of the public finances.
He added: ‘As you know there has been a very important declaration by the Irish Government which has been made public recently, I had already occasion to consider that it was extremely important.
‘There are deadlines that have been mentioned by the Irish Government. Let me say that we are certainly considering that it is absolutely important that this commitment that has been taken is put into is put into appropriate action.’
Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi has said she is confident that Ireland will take the necessary measures to ensure that help is not required from the International Monetary Fund or the European Union emergency support fund.
Ms Kiviniemi was speaking at Government Buildings after a meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
Asked if Finland would support help for Ireland from international funds if it was required, Ms Kiviniemi said that was a question that could only be answered if and when such assistance was required.
However, she said she had been briefed by Mr Cowen on measures, which were being taken on the revenue and spending sides and was confident the Government was doing what was required.
Mr Cowen also announced the first investments under the Innovation Fund, which will see venture capital firm DFJ Esprit establish an office in Dublin.
Gormley wants all-party consensus
Green Party leader John Gormley has called for an all-party national consensus on the economic situation.
Mr Gormley said the leaders of the five parties in the Dáil should come together without preconditions to look at all the measures needed and to get broad political buy-in on to them.
He said the situation was ‘quite grave’.
International ratings agency Fitch said yesterday that Ireland's credit rating could be lowered further if there was not 'broad political support' for measures to tackle the public finances.
Fitch downgraded the Government-guaranteed debt of five Irish financial institutions as a consequence of their downgrade of Ireland’s sovereign debt rating yesterday.
Earlier, Fine Gael's Finance Spokesman Michael Noonan said that his party was committed to reducing the deficit/GNP ratio to 3% by 2014.
He added that he did not believe it should be extended beyond that.
He also said that the Government has not indicated what its budgetary adjustments will be, therefore Fine Gael could not say if they agreed with them or not.
When asked if Fine Gael were proposing tax increases for the upcoming Budget, Mr Noonan said it was too soon to say.
He did add, though, that it was well down his list of priorities.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan acknowledged in the Dáil that Opposition parties have accepted the economic targets agreed by the Government with the European Commission.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore pointed out that his party and Fine Gael had accepted the need to bring the budget deficit back down to 3% of GDP by 2014.
However, Mr Gilmore did admit that the political parties might disagree on how to achieve this.
He said it would be in the 'national interest' for the Government to acknowledge this.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny accused 'Government spin-doctors' of trying to bind the Opposition parties into Government strategy with the Fitch statement.
The Tánaiste said it had been acknowledged that the Opposition parties accepted the 3% target and she would acknowledge it again if it had not been heard.
Separately, Mr Gilmore said up to €100m may be needed to compensate road toll companies if traffic falls below certain levels.
The Labour leader said he believes that the National Roads Authority has agreed a secret deal that if traffic levels fell below certain thresholds on certain roads, that a penalty would be paid to the companies.
He said it appears that traffic on the M3 is 22% below the agreed threshold and that the Limerick tunnel is 26% below.
Speaking during the Order of Business, the Tánaiste said that was a matter for the line Minister to address.
