Loan in 'Tens of Billions' Seen for Ireland

By QUENTIN FOTTRELL

DUBLIN—A loan of "tens of billions" of euros will be made to Ireland by its European Union counterparts, Patrick Honohan, member of the European Central Bank's governing council and governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, said Thursday.

Officials from the EU, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund are in Dublin on Thursday to examine the country's finances and troubled banking system. This may include the activation of the European Financial Stability Facility, the €440 billion ($594.66 billion) emergency loan program established to help euro-zone countries refinance their debts.

"The intention is and the expectation is on their part, and personally on my part, that negotiations or discussions will be effective and a loan will be made available and drawn down as necessary," Mr. Honohan said, speaking in an interview on Irish state broadcaster RTE Radio.

He said banks will use any IMF/ECB money as contingent funding which can be shown to investors that Ireland has the "firepower" to deal with its problems, but not necessarily used, and noted that there have been substantial outflows of deposits from Irish banks since April. (Fonte: Wall Street Journal)