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Updated Tuesday, November 16, 2010 11:16 am TWN, By Shawn Pogatchnik, AP



	A man leaves the Bank of Ireland in Dublin, on Monday, Nov. 15. Ireland admitted Monday it is in contact with “international colleagues” over its debt crisis but denied seeking a bailout, as the EU warned that Dublin's woes are a concern for the whole euro area. (AFP) Enlarge Photo

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Irish in crisis talks with EU nations, refuse aid

DUBLIN -- Debt-burdened Ireland is talking with other European Union governments about how to handle its troubled finances, but Irish officials denied they needed a bailout from an EU rescue fund as the continent's debt crisis continued to challenge policymakers for a response that would calm market turmoil.

Greece, which has already received a financial rescue loan, had to revised its deficit figures upward yet again.

But the main focus was on Ireland ahead of a meeting Tuesday of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, where they will look for ways to quell market fears of an eventual Irish default.

Those fears are driving up the borrowing costs of other EU nations saddled with red ink, notably Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Analysts said investors needed the finance ministers in Brussels to offer a clear path forward for Ireland to reduce its deficit and bear the costs of its enormous bank bailout and continue to dump the debt of indebted countries.

Irish officials insisted they had no need to seek help because they have enough cash to avoid new borrowing until mid-2011, amid speculation that other EU countries were pressing them to stop the market rout by asking for help from the eurozone's euro750 million financial backstop put together with the EU executive commission and the International Monetary Fund.

"We have no reason whatsoever why Ireland should seek external support. Ireland is well funded," Ireland's minister for European affairs, Dick Roche, said in a telephone interview.

When asked if Ireland hoped to tap EU funds to boost the liquidity of its troubled banks, as opposed to the government, Roche said that was a matter for the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, not the EU's emergency fund.

"There is no reason for us to trigger any mechanism," Roche said. "There's been no political discussions about triggering any mechanism. We don't know how many times we have to say this, as a government, to stop all this inaccurate speculation."

A senior Irish opposition politician, Michael Noonan of the Fine Gael party, said he believed that other European governments were determined to intervene soon to contain Ireland's problems for the wider sake of euro-zone stability.

"I think there is European intervention under way," he said, referring to reports suggesting that pressure was coming from Brussels, Berlin and other European capitals for the Irish to accept a bailout.

"I think the Irish government are fighting a rear-guard action for appearances purposes, but ... I believe that things will come to head in the next 24 hours," Noonan said in reference to Tuesday's meeting of 16 euro-zone finance ministers and Wednesday's meeting of the ministers of all 27 EU members.

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