The junior finance minister says the Troika's involvement in Ireland has been a positive thing for us.

Brian Hayes was responding to claims that the Troika is becoming too politically intrusive.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal last night, Minister Hayes said the EU, the ECB and IMF lent money to Ireland when nobody else would.

He added that the Troika had taught us the benefits of financial discipline:

Minister Hayes also wants us to plough ahead with more austerity than is strictly needed.

Brian Hayes says Ireland should try to surpass the EU's budget targets for 2014 - a move which will mean a bigger budget and more austerity.

The minister says Ireland has built up a reputation of always beating its targets, and shouldn't stop now.

Minister Hayes says overcoming the targets will make it easier to escape the bailout and borrow money independently:

His views have exposed new divisions in the government about the scale of October's Budget.

Labour minister Ruairí Quinn says he wants just enough austerity to satisfy the EU and no more - and says the Troika are being intrusive:

Yesterday it appeared that Fine Gael and Labour were beginning to bridge their divide in terms of deciding the parameters for Budget 2014, in just 10 week's time.

But now it appears that the coalition partners could still be as far away as ever.

The head of the IMF office in Ireland said last night there was leeway in the next Budget - as long as lost ground was made up in 2015.