Ireland's debt crisis and the stability of the euro will be discussed at a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels today.
The European Central Bank has said that aid would be available to the Government, but last night Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that Ireland was not making an application to Europe or to the International Monetary Fund.
Mr Cowen said the Government would continue to work with partners to find ways of bringing stability to financial markets.
Meanwhile, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy has said the EU will not survive if it fails to overcome the debt crisis plaguing the single currency area.
‘We're in a survival crisis,’ Mr Van Rompuy said in a speech in Brussels.
‘We all have to work together in order to survive with the Eurozone, because if we don't survive with the Eurozone we will not survive with the European Union,’ he said in a speech.
‘But I'm very confident we will overcome this.’
Eurozone finance ministers will arrive in Brussels this afternoon amidst an atmosphere of anxiety and some discord.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is set to continue to insist that Ireland is fully funded until July of next year and doesn't need a bailout.
Other members will also feel that Ireland has been put under unfair pressure over the past few days.
However, finance ministers of Portugal and perhaps Spain could bring their own concerns to the table, namely that the uncertainty in the bond markets is pushing their bond deals to unsustainable levels.
The European Central Bank, two of whose members have strongly hinted that Ireland should accept a bailout to calm the markets, will probably argue that the amount of ECB liquidity pouring into Irish banks is not sustainable either.
Whatever the differences of opinion, the focus is likely to remain on Ireland's banking sector and its crippling effect on our sovereign debt situation.
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche has urged EU finance ministers not to ‘panic’ and said there was no need for his country to trigger international support mechanisms.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ‘There's no application for IMF or EU funds and it's not helpful to speculate.
‘I would hope that after the meeting this afternoon there would be more logic introduced to this. There's no reason why we should trigger an IMF or EU-type bail-out.’
He added: ‘There is a problem with liquidity in banks but I don't think the appropriate response to that would be for European finance ministers to panic.’
