DUBLIN-Just over half of Irish people support a multi-billion euro EU/IMF rescue package but 56 per cent believe the country has surrendered its sovereignty by accepting the assistance, a poll published yesterday said. Ireland was forced to resort to the IMF, the European Union and European Central Bank to negotiate an 85 billion euro ($113 billion) loan after a banking sector crisis drove the economy into the ground and sent ripples across the wider euro zone.
Irish taxpayers face years of spending cuts and tax hikes, as part of a four-year austerity drive designed to squeeze 15 billion euros from the worst deficit in Europe, beginning with 2011 budget's record package of 6 billion euros in adjustments. When asked if they supported the bailout, 51 per cent of Irish people said they welcomed it, 37 per cent did not, and 12 per cent did not know, an Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll showed. 56 per cent of the 1,000 voters sampled said Dublin had surrendered its sovereignty by accepting the deal, while 33 per cent said it had not and 11 per cent had no opinion. Brian Cowen, the most unpopular Irish prime minister in recent history, is expected to lose a national election early next year, over his handling of the crisis. (Reuters)