TROIKA OFFICIALS are back in Ireland to carry out their latest review of the state’s development on its loan agreement.

Irish unemployment was registered at 14.3 per cent in March and the EU, IMF and ECB officials are expected to review the government’s Pathways to Work employment scheme.

Representatives from the EU and IMF have already signalled that Ireland’s economic recovery could be hampered more by developments in the wider eurozone than had been anticipated when then the €85 billion agreement was reached in 2010.

Early last month the EU Commission suggested that Ireland could need a mini-budget later this year if the economies of its major trading partners continue to falter. The Irish Fiscal Advisory echoed this in their report for April, but Minister of State Brian Hayes said that no such move was being planned for the summer.

Meanwhile, the IMF’s latest quarterly report on Ireland’s financial outlook said that the state’s “economy faces greater external and domestic challenges than envisaged at the outset of the programme”. It warned that household spending was likely to fall further as household debt rises and the value of property continues to fall.

The latest Troika review of Ireland comes as Spain and Italy face rising borrowing costs, raising concerns that Spain will eventually require a bailout.