“Ireland has finally been forced to take an economic bail-out from the European Union in a deal designed to save the euro. After a humiliating week of denying it needed help, the Dublin government succumbed to pressure from other euro zone countries and asked for a ‘very big’ loan. G7 and euro zone finance ministers including George Osborne, the Chancellor, held emergency telephone conference talks on a combined EU-IMF rescue package of up to £77billion. British taxpayers now face paying a bill of at least £7billion and possibly as much as £9billion because, under a deal signed by the last Labour government, British taxpayers are liable to share in the cost of any EU bail-out. This represents upwards of £300 for every family in the UK. On Monday Irish and euro zone governments will be watching the markets after Greece, which received a £94 billion bail-out in April, warned that the EU’s debt crisis was not finished yet. Portugal has already warned that there is a ‘high risk’ it might need economic help. If investors are unconvinced by the Irish rescue package, the euro could come under pressure while the cost of borrowing for the Dublin government could rise. Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German finance minister, said that the deal was necessary to preserve the euro’s future. ‘We are not just defending a member state but our common currency’, he said. ‘Ireland has to meet strict conditions, and these will be negotiated in the coming days, so that it is not just providing financing but about ensuring that the problems are solved’. Last week, Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, warned that debt contagion was a ‘survival crisis’ threatening the existence of the euro and the wider European Union”
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