At this point, external assistance in the form of recourse to the financing facilities of the EU and IMF became essential. Through providing financial support out to end-2013, subject to specific conditionality, the programme provides time for Ireland to tackle its problems. In terms of conditionality, as I mentioned earlier, the programme essentially required a continuation and deepening of existing policies.
In particular, the EU-IMF programme endorsed the overall policy approach to banking, while facilitating a more rapid and far-reaching implementation of this strategy. The central aim remained to recapitalise, resize and restructure. First, capital was being injected to reach the newly increased capital standards. Second, an explicit strategy for downsizing and reorganising the banking sector was to be implemented.