Fine Gael is to meet with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso in Brussels tomorrow to discuss the party's position on renegotiating the interest rate Ireland will pay to access bailout funds.
Finance spokesman Michael Noonan said both he and party leader Enda Kenny have an appointment with Mr Barroso at 6pm at which they intended to tell him Fine Gael’s position on accessing funds.
"Policy in Europe is moving very rapidly, some member states have already said that the interest rates on the bailout fund should be reduced,” said Mr Noonan. “There's no formal agreement yet but there's a meeting of the council in February and another one in March. So things are moving rapidly,” he said.
"If we're fortunate enough to be part of the incoming government, we want to have our position laid out clearly to president Barroso before decisions that could be taken in the interregnum between governments are taken,” he added.
Mr Noonan's comments today come after the publication of an interview with the Financial Times in which he warned the State may be unable to repay the €35 billion bailout being provided by the EU because it is too "expensive".
He also raised the possibility of renegotiating terms with those senior bondholders in the banks whose investments are not covered by the 2008 government guarantee.
Earlier today Mr Kenny said Fine Gael was engaging with both the European Union and the IMF over the terms of last year's bailout.
Mr Kenny said he would discuss the terms of the bailout with Mr Barroso through his role as vice-president of the European People's Party. He also said he intended to meet with other leaders to discuss it and renegotiate the 5.8 per cent interest rate charged by the European Financial Stability Facility.
Mr Kenny added that Fine Gael were directly engaged with the IMF over the terms of a jobs creation package for the Irish economy.
The Republic has signed up to pay a higher interest rate on its EU loan than on the €22.5 billion it is borrowing from the International Monetary Fund, mostly at the insistence of Germany. A possible reduction of the EU rate will be on the table when EU leaders meet at the start of February and again in March.
Of the €85 billion EU loan, the Republic is due €17.7 billion from the newly created European Financial Stability Facility and €22.5 billion from a separate EU fund.