THE PRESIDENT of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has shared his belief that Ireland will be able to overcome its current financial problems.

Speaking to an audience of academics at Cambridge University last night, Barroso said he was “fully confident” that the Irish economy would grow to the degree needed to end the country’s crisis.

“I have great confidence in the Irish government,” PA quotes the Portuguese as saying, possibly giving the outgoing Fianna Fáil and Green Party administration a boost in next Friday’s election.

The economic woes Ireland was experiencing were the result of “unprecedented behaviour in the financial sector, Barroso said.

Barroso added that he felt the policies being pursued by Europe to help the continent’s struggling countries were “the right ones… we have been supporting fully.”

RTÉ reported that Barroso felt such policies had been pursued in the face of significant European temptation to splinter the single market into two tiers, but that the defence of the single-tier economic union was “an unsung success story”.

“It would have been so easy for member states to close in on themselves and splinter into 27 mini markets again,” Barroso – who is serving his second term as President said, adding: “There were strong temptations in that direction.”

Asked if that unity would extend to the creation of a single European superstate, however, Barroso was equally adamant.

“We are not a state and we do not intend to be a state. The European Union is something new. It is a union of domestic states. I think it is a great construction,” he said.