Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said he will seek a dissolution of the Dáil after the current budgetary process is complete. He said passing the Budget was the most important task facing the country.
He was speaking after Green Party leader John Gormley earlier called for a general election date to be set for the second half of January.
Read more on the Taoiseach's announcement here
Europe's Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner has described Ireland's decision to seek help from the EU and IMF as a critical step forward in the joint efforts to stabilise the Irish economy and to safeguard the stability of the euro.
Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg, Olli Rehn said technical talks with the Irish Government were now well underway and that the negotiations should be concluded by the end of the month.
Mr Rehn said European financial support would be provided under a programme with 'rigorous policy conditionality', which according to the Commissioner would address the fiscal challenges of the Irish economy in a decisive manner.
On the Irish banking sector, he said that a range of measures would be needed - including deleveraging and restructuring - to ensure it performed its correct function.
Also in Strasbourg, the European Central Bank president reacted to yesterday's decision by the Irish Government to seek aid from the EU and the IMF. Jean-Claude Trichet told RTE News that in his thinking this was a good decision, and that now it is important to get the response of the international community.
When asked if he was more confident now about the stability of the euro following the Irish decision, Mr Trichet said 'we shall see' because negotiations are still taking place in Dublin.
Read more details of how the rescue could work
Earlier, Mr Rehn repeated his earlier comments that Ireland would no longer be a low tax economy.
When asked in an interview with RTÉ if the corporate tax rate was now off the table for good, Mr Rehn said that by Ireland's ceasing to be a low tax country, this did not imply specific measures, but 'it is likely unfortunately to imply tax increases'.
RTÉ News understands that the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan thanked the German and French finance ministers for softening their stance on Ireland's low rate of corporate tax during last night's teleconference between euro zone finance ministers which approved Ireland's request for a bail-out.
It is understood Minister Lenihan thanked both Wolfgang Schäuble and Christine Lagarde after both the German and French leaders appeared over the weekend to retreat from a belief that Ireland should increase its corporation tax rate in exchange for a financial rescue.
Speaking at the NATO summit in Lisbon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the question of corporate tax was a matter for the Irish Government. At the same meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his personal belief was that Ireland should raise its corporate tax rate, but that it was not a condition for the bail-out.
The AFP news agency has quoted an EU source as saying that the Government is willing to widen its corporation tax base in exchange for an international financial rescue, but without changing the 12.5% rate.
'Ireland is considering enlarging the tax net for companies' even if the percentage 'will not change,' said the source, who AFP said was close to a fifth day of EU-IMF negotiations with Ireland.
Some EU countries have long criticised Ireland's comparatively low corporation tax rate, which they say gives it unfair leverage when it comes to securing international investment from global giants such as Microsoft or Google. The average corporation tax rate across the 16 countries that share the euro is 25.7%.
This morning, Mr Lenihan said the outline of the Government's four-year budgetary plan, due to be published on Wednesday, had 'broadly satisfied' officials from the International Monetary Fund and the EU. The €15 billion adjustment will consist of €10 billion of spending cuts and €5 billion of tax increases.
Mr Lenihan also told RTE that there was no question of changing the 2011 Budget, which will frontload much of the cuts.
'I'm quite satisfied on the basis of the discussions to date that the budget that will be presented to Dáil Eireann on December 7 will be our own budget. There have been no requests for any changes in that,' he said.
Moody's likely to downgrade Ireland
Moody's credit rating agency warned today that it would most likely have to downgrade Irish sovereign debt by several notches in view of the costs of an EU-IMF rescue for Ireland.
'A multi-notch downgrade, leaving the rating of the Republic (of Ireland) still within the investment-grade category, is now the most likely outcome of our review of the sovereign credit,' Moody's said in an analyst note.
Moody's said that the strains in the Irish banking system were worse than it had estimated and that the costs of the rescue funding, agreed in principle but not yet in detail, would add to the burdens on the country's national finances.
At the same time, it said the announcement that help was on its was 'is an important step to restore confidence in the Irish banking system'.
'Our expectations are that the overall size of the aid package will be €80-95 billion,' Moody's said.
A debt downgrade signals increased risk attached to debt issued by a country and usually means that its cost of borrowing will rise. However, in the case of Ireland, the rate on its debt has already risen sharply in recent weeks and stood at 8.3% this evening.
