Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said there had been no "softening" in Spain's fiscal targets, and that there was no comparison between Spain and Ireland.
Speaking following a meeting of EU finance ministers Mr Noonan said that Spain's deficit target over the next 20 months had remained the same: reaching a budget deficit level of 3% in 2013.
Last night eurozone finance ministers agreed to relax Spain's deficit target for 2012.
It will now be 5.3% of Gross Domestic Product instead of the original 4.4% agreed under the EU's recently toughened Excessive Deficit Procedure.
The concession was made following Madrid's announcement 11 days ago that it would not be reaching its deficit target for 2012 because of the effects of the country's recession.
The Spanish economy is expected to contract by 1.7% this year.
Asked about a charge that there were double standards being applied and that Ireland and other countries could also argue that austerity measures are not compatible with a recession, Mr Noonan replied:
"Spain is not comparable with Ireland. Spain is not in a [bailout] programme. There are three programme countries, Greece, Portugal and Ireland and obviously the rules and conditions for programme countries have been negotiated, set down and agreed under quarterly reviews. Spain's position is different, but their targets haven't been softened."
Mr Noonan added that “the new targets announced by Spain were not acceptable, and they had to be hardened up.”
“The target for Spain to reach 3pc by 2013 has been maintained as the target, but the target announced by their prime minster of getting to 5.8% in 2012 was rejected and the new target is 5.3%, so I don't see any softening in Spain's targets.
“Their target over the next 20 months is the same target and the intermediary target which they fixed for 2012 has been hardened up."
He said even with the revised target for 2012 Spain still had to make a budgetary adjustment of 5.5% to reach its target of 3% in 2013.
Earlier an Irish government spokesperson denied that there was any comparison between Ireland and Spain in terms of securing further concessions for Ireland, and that in any case Ireland had been given more time to meet the 3% target.
"Upon taking office last year this Government renegotiated key elements of the [bailout] programme including the extension of the 3pc target to 2015, the restoration of the minimum wage and the reduction in the Interest rate,” he said.
“It is essential for Ireland continued recovery that we continue to deliver our targets as set out in the Programme.”
"Ireland achieved and in fact exceeded our deficit reduction target of 10.6% of GDP in 2011 and Ireland is on target to meet the 8.6% deficit reduction target in 2012. Ireland is on track to reduce our deficit to below 3% in 2015," he said.
