DUBLIN: Just over half of Irish people support a multi-billion euro EU/IMF rescue package but 56 percent believe the country has surrendered its sovereignty by accepting the assistance, a poll published Saturday said. Ireland was forced to resort to the IMF, the European Union and European Central Bank to negotiate an 85 billion euro ($113 billion) loan after a banking sector crisis drove the economy into the ground and sent ripples across the wider euro zone. Irish taxpayers face years of spending cuts and tax hikes, as part of a four-year austerity drive designed to squeeze 15 billion euros from the worst deficit in Europe, beginning with 2011 budget's record package of 6 billion euros in adjustments. When asked if they supported the bailout, 51 percent of Irish people said they welcomed it, 37 percent did not, and 12 percent did not know, an Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll showed.
