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18 November 2010 - The day Ajai Chopra and the IMF came to town - but it wasn't their first in-depth discussion with the Government... Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Discussions for potential bailout happened months before announcement

IMF’s Ajai Chopra tells Prime Time special programme tonight that discussions started in summer 2010.

THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT publicly denied that an EU/IMF bailout was on the cards almost up to the point that the deal was signed and announced on 21 November last year.

However, in an exclusive interview to be aired tonight on an RTÉ Prime Time special, the IMF chief negotiator’s Ajai Chopra says that the IMF was having discussions with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and members of the Government from as far back as the summer of 2010.

On 11 October 2010, Lenihan told Bloomberg Television that Ireland would “absolutely” not need a bailout. On 17 November, a day before the IMF was due to arrive in Dublin, then Taoiseach Brian Cowen went on RTÉ’s Six-One News to deny that their arrival meant that they were in town for bailout negotiations.

In the interview with Prime Time reporter Robert Shortt to be shown tonight, Ajai Chopra said that discussions began long before we may have even suspected. He said:

We had a number of discussions over the course of the summer and the autumn of 2010. The point about all our contacts over that period in the summer and the autumn was for the Irish to explain to us what steps they were taking. But there was another dimension to this as well. This was a new environment for Ireland and, you know, this was a tough decision whether to ask for support or not.

Also on tonight’s programme Patrick Honohan, Governor of the Central Bank, says that discussions that took place in Brussels on the weekend of 14/15 November were indeed “pre-negotiations” for a bailout deal. He said:

The discussions were at a level of detail which would normally only occur after a formal request was made. But in deference to the Minister’s reluctance to make a formal request, the IMF agreed to conduct those detailed discussions that weekend.

These were pre-negotiation discussions.

Prime Time special: The Bailout airs at 9.35pm tonight on RTÉ1

The bailout in quotes: from denial to deal>

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    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
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    May 5th 2013, 12:39 PM

    The rise of Islamophobia & the re-emergence of Anti-Semitism in Europe is very sad to see. Fear through ignorance is the cause of all types of racism. People fear what/who they don’t know & understand.

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    Mute Genius
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    May 5th 2013, 1:08 PM

    Well you assume all who are sceptic of promoters of jehad and indiscriminate killing of women and children in the west bank are ignorant and racist,That in itself is a stereo typing.I would suggest that a total sense of apathy is not the answer as you suggest.

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    Mute Buckwheat MacMillan
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    May 5th 2013, 1:11 PM

    Global Jihad is nothing at all to be concerned about.

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    Mute Conor Murphy
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    May 5th 2013, 6:21 PM

    @Genius

    There is a difference between Islamaphobia and critiquing islam. Europe undeniably has a huge problem with Islamaphobia.

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    Mute Genius
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    May 5th 2013, 6:52 PM

    @Conor Murphy
    Can you have a guess as to why that might be,Its not a totally unfounded irrational fear.

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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    May 5th 2013, 6:55 PM

    Straight in therw again Thomas!!!!! How do you do it. Its like you are getting paid to watch these articles online. Oh wait……. a go, collect that 2grand. Fair play. Easy money if you can get it

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    Mute Chris
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    May 5th 2013, 12:41 PM

    And we all thought Germany left that behind them and they then call the shots in the rest of Europe shame on them

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    Mute snooch
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    May 5th 2013, 12:48 PM

    129 people in one of the largest states in Europe. Thats like trying to make out what the staff in one tesco store do is what the entire Irish nation do. Backwards blind Germany bashing will most likely be par for course on this article.

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    Mute Anne De Croix
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    May 5th 2013, 3:26 PM

    Ah, where’s my comment gone!

    Like racism in much of the west, pro nazi sentiment is alive and well in modern Germany according to some Germans I met recently.

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    Mute Sean Browne
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    May 5th 2013, 1:44 PM

    Where is the tesco store I’m going to lidl from now on

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    Mute Mark Gaynor
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    May 5th 2013, 7:44 PM

    Now I know why I can’t get a good bagel or falafal in Germany!

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