Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said Dublin's plan to return to capital markets in late 2013 might not be achievable because of uncertainty in Europe.

Minister Noonan was speaking at the Bloomberg Ireland Economic Summit today.

“There are various fund which we draw cheap funds from because we are in the programme – IMF, EFSF. But by the end of 2013 there will be only be one European Fund – ESM. Unless you ratify the treaty, a country that doesn’t ratify the Treaty will not have access to the fund," said the Minister.

"Now we may not need it. Our plan is not to need it because we hope to get back in the Markets by the back end of 2013. But we mightn’t. Because there is such uncertainty in Europe now it would be very useful to have an alternative source of money when we are dealing with the markets. The very fact that we would have an alternative source of money at about 3% would encourage lenders to lend to us. So either we need the money or we don’t need the money. The backstop would be very helpful to us,” added Mr Noonan.

Meanwhile, Greeks are voting with their wallets and pulling euros out of the banks in fear that their country may leave the European single currency despite the declared determination of EU powers Germany and France to keep Athens in the monetary union.

Central banking sources said the European Central Bank has stopped lending to some Greek banks because they had not been successfully recapitalised.

The sources did not name the banks but said they have to go to the Bank of Greece for emergency liquidity assistance. The ECB declined comment.

As financial markets shuddered over the deepening turmoil in Athens on Wednesday, governments of other troubled euro zone states from Spain to Ireland voiced concern about the impact on their own shaky finances.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament his country faced trouble financing itself as borrowing costs shoot up to "astronomic" levels.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Dublin's plan to return to capital markets in late 2013 might not be achievable because of the uncertainty.

A chorus of sceptical politicians and central bankers from London to Ottawa predicted the euro could fall apart unless European governments act more decisively to save the currency.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias told political leaders that citizens were withdrawing their money due to "great fear that could develop into panic" at the risk of a debt default and exit from the euro area, according to minutes of their meetings posted on the presidency's website.

He quoted the central bank chief as saying about 800 million euros ($1 billion) had been taken out in a single day. The head of the International Institute of Finance banking lobby, Charles Dallara, said money was leaving Greece at a growing pace due to political uncertainty.

"There has been a pick up of deposit flight from Greece but I think that is stabilisable once you get a new government in place, if that government reaffirms its intention to remain in the euro zone," Dallara, who was chief negotiator for private sector holders of Greek bonds, told reporters in Ireland.

The damage to the rest of Europe if Greece were to leave the euro would be "somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon", he said.

Papoulias, who tried in vain to broker a national unity government, appointed a senior judge, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, as caretaker prime minister on Wednesday until a second general election in just over a month is held on June 17.

The failure of his talks to avert a repeat election sent judders around financial markets, hitting global share prices and other riskier assets, although sentiment steadied later.

Ireland should not follow Greek writedown path

Charles Dallara has said that Ireland should not contemplate a Greek style private debt writedown because it is "so close" to regaining market funds.

Mr Dallara is the managing director of the Institute of International Finance.

He represented the financial industry in the talks on Greece's second bail-out programme that secured the largest debt restructuring in history.

Speaking in Dublin today, he also said that a Greek exit from euro would be "somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon".