Brian Lenihan: Ireland will need a bailout

Finance minister Brian Lenihan finally admitted last night that Ireland are in need of an IMF-EU bailout.

This admission comes after a week of the government denying that they would require any outside assistance.

"We have to address the problems in our banking sector, we can’t function without a functioning banking sector, and it’s clear that we will need some form of external assistance to address the difficulties there," Lenihan said.

Lenihan’s comments come in the wake of Central bank governor Patrick Honohan declaring a bailout inevitable.

Tainiste Mary Coughlan and Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche have stated that Ireland will not under any conditions lower its corporation tax.

“There has been some very unhelpful chatter in the background in the last few days about our corporation profit tax,” Roche told the BBC today.

“Where would be the sense of destroying one of the great drivers of growth?”