Taoiseach Enda Kenny is attending a euro area summit in Brussels tonight where the interest rate on Ireland’s EU/IMF bailout is to be discussed.
European leaders attending the meeting have backed a plan to tighten economic cooperation, clearing German chancellor Angela Merkel's condition for completing a comprehensive package to counter to the debt crisis.
The blueprint, intended to boost competitiveness by curbing deficits and reducing labour costs, sets goals rather than binding targets, helping to overcome objections to the version proposed last month.
Euro-area leaders reached an agreement "in principle on the pact for the euro," European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement.
The leaders are "still discussing the other elements of the package", he added.
It has been reported that French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Mr Kenny clashed over Ireland's corporation tax rates.
Dr Merkel and Mr Sarkozy, a critic of Ireland's 12.5 per cent tax rate, have said a common corporate tax base should be a condition for agreeing to ease the terms of the Irish bailout.
Mr Kenny last night said that creating such as rate would be "harmonisation of taxes through the back door."
Additional reporting - Bloomberg