Ireland’s Lenihan contradicts previous position on interest rates renegotiation

At Monday’s Eurogroup summit in Brussels Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan fielded numerous questions from journalists. Beginning with a question on renegotiation of the Irish EU-IMF Bailout interest rates, set at 5.7% higher even than those being repaid by Greece. Originally the embattled finance Minister had described any renegotiation of said rates as fantasy, a position he negated in his response to journalists questions in Brussels. Mr Lenihan went on to talk about the size and scope of the EFSF, or rescue mechanism. Finally, Lenihan insisted he couldn’t state when the Irish Finance Bill would be enacted, but hinted at it being the end of February at the earliest.