Bailout details agreed, reports say

A rescue plan and bailout package has been agreed on Sunday morning, news agency Reuters has reported.

Over the last week, representitives of the Government have been meeting with representitives of the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF in Dublin in order to thrash out a multi-billion euro rescue plan expected to be in the region of €85bn. These talks are now believed to have concluded.

A source told Reuters that "the negotiations are complete and a package has been agreed on the ground".

"EU finance ministers are now ready to sign off on it, but I think they will also want to discuss some of the finer details and add some political impetus to what has been agreed in Ireland."

A spokesman for the government disputed this, saying that a deal has not yet been done and that discussions need to be completed in Europe. It does look likely, however, that the Dublin negotiations have been concluded, and that a deal is now ready for European finance ministers to discuss in Brussels today.

The finance ministers will hope that they can ratify the deal quickly ahead of bond markets opening on Monday in the hope that this will end market uncertainty and that it will stop the rot from spreading to those other Eurozone countries with economic woes such as Portugal and Spain.

Any bailout deal will come in the wake of a demonstration on Saturday in Dublin that saw 50,000 people rally against the Government's four-year austerity plan.