Chancellor George Osborne has said that Britain was prepared to commit seven billion to the Irish bail-out plan. The EU and IMF agreed on Sunday to help bail out Ireland with loans to tackle its banking and budget crisis in a bid to protect Europe's financial stability.
"What we have committed to do is to obviously be partners as shareholders in the IMF in an international rescue of the Irish economy,"
Osborne told BBC Radio 4....
"But we have also made a commitment to consider a bilateral loan that reflects the fact we are not part of the Euro ... but Ireland is our very closest economic neighbour."
Osborne was questioned about reports that Britain was going to contribute around seven billion pounds to Ireland, he replied:
"It's around that (figure), it's in the order of billions not tens of billions but the details of the entire package, not just the UK contribution, but the euro zone and IMF contribution, that is all being worked out as we speak and we should by the end of the month have the details on that."
Osborne was keen to stress that Britain should not have to provide further help to Ireland or any other Euro zone countries that got into trouble. However this contribution by Britain is causing trouble at home amid an atmosphere of spending cuts - there are claims that this bail out makes a mockery of the hardships Britain will endure as a result self-imposed austerity measures. The criticism is heightened by claims that this is a problem that arguably should be resolved primarily by the Euro-currency countries.
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