NEW FIGURES FROM the Financial Regulator have shown that Ireland has already drawn down over a quarter of the emergency funding made available to it through the EU-IMF bailout.

Figures published by the regulator today showed that Ireland had already withdrawn a total of €18.4 billion euro from the funds, which were made available by the EU and IMF last November.

That number amounts to over 27 per cent of the €67.5bn in funds made available.

€12.6bn of the funding had been drawn down from the European Financial Stability Facility, paid into by the 27 member states of the EU, while €5.8bn had been drawn down from the IMF’s €22.5bn.

The amount drawn down by the state is set to increase significantly later this week when the results of new stress tests are expected to show that the banking sector needs a total of between €20bn and €25bn in extra funding.

The tests, due on Thursday, are also expected to lead the state to virtually nationalise Irish Life & Permanent, the only financial institution left in the state which is covered by the bank guarantee not to have received state funding to date.

Renewed talks on seeking a lower interest rate on the EU’s portion of the bailout loans are expected to resume when the stress test results are published.

The remaining €17.5bn of the total €85bn bailout package consists of funds from the National Pension Reserve Fund, which is not though to have had funds drawn down from it yet.