BRITISH MPS ARE DUE TO vote on a bilateral loan to Ireland today.

If approved, the UK would be prepared to offer Ireland €3.87bn in loans which would be reviewed every six months.

The legislation coming before parliament today will cap the loan and introduce measures allowing further increases via a vote in parliament, but Osborne said that the Irish loan is a special case and he has “given the strongest possible hint” that Britain will not make loans to other EU members, the Guardian reports.

Britain is also loaning money to Ireland as part of the EU’s member state fund, and its total contribution is expected to be around £7bn (€8.4bn).

RTÉ News reports that the EU and IMF is charging Ireland a higher margin on some aspects of the loan - a margin of nearly 3% above the 5.7% rate being charged under the country’s bailout agreement.

That margin could cost Ireland €5bn if the full loan was drawn down. RTÉ says that Ireland’s member on the European Court of Auditors, Eoin O’Shea, said there was no precedent for the EU charging a margin on loans.

Questioned about this higher margin by Morning Ireland this morning, Minister for Fisheries and Forestry Sean Connick said he was “at a bit of a loss” about the information being discussed and had been focused on fisheries for the past three days. He said the money being loaned to Ireland was regarded as an “overdraft” which could be drawn down, but the government hopes Ireland can return to the markets in 18 months or so.