Sutherland calls for bailout talks

FORMER EU commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs, Peter Sutherland has called for a review of Ireland's bailout package.

Ireland is paying roughly 5.8pc interest on over €40bn worth of loans from Europe, above the EU funding cost of 2.9pc.

Mr Sutherland said that the rate could make Ireland's economic woes more painful.

"This differential is exorbitant. It is also probably unsustainable having regard to likely growth rates," he wrote in a guest column for the Financial Times.

"Far from helping to solve the problem it is therefore likely to exacerbate it."

The EU and the International Monetary Fund agreed on the €85bn emergency loan package with Ireland but newly elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny is bidding to renegotiate the deal.

"The bottom line of the Irish crisis is to emphasise the interdependence that exists in Europe and not just the eurozone," Mr Sutherland added.

"Loans required by states following breaches of the agreed limits on budget deficits must attract some penalty... but should not amount to an unduly punitive sanction like it does now."

And Mr Sutherland said that Ireland's position on corporation tax was irreversible.

"We should note that in a World Bank-PwC report it has been established that the actual rate of tax paid, for example, in France, is 8.2pc and is even lower elsewhere," he said.