DUBLIN-The US stock markets dropped, as did the Euro against the US dollar, as Ireland made its bailout appeal to borrow up more than $70 billion from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. In afternoon trading in the United States, the Dow Jones was down by more than 100 points, and the dollar was up to $1.36 per Euro.

On Nov. 21, Ireland’s government agreed to apply for help. The financial assistance package to the Irish state will likely be financed from the European financial stabilization mechanism and the European financial stability facility, possibly supplemented by bilateral loans to be negotiated by EU Member States.

Brian Lenihan, Ireland’s finance minister, said during a press conference Sunday that the country has sound economic fundamentals. The country will reduce its deficit to 3% of GDP by 2014, and will publish a four-year budget plan sometime next week. “We have seen a 6% increase in exports year on year this year,” Lenihan said during the press conference. “It is estimated that our balance of payments will move into surplus next year, and when you aggregate our public and private sectors, we will be paying our own way in the wider world.”

International real estate experts have tempered worries about Ireland’s collapse impacting world investing, saying that the country has a stronger government in place than happened during the Greek crisis earlier this year.  A few US-based investment firms have sent emissaries to Ireland to buy out banks and development groups who over-levered in local and international CRE projects.

As part of the loan request, the country has promised a deep restructure to the health of its banking system. “(The loan) will build on extensive measures taken by Ireland to strengthen its banking sector, via guarantees, recapitalization and asset segregation,” according to a government statement. “By building on the measures already taken by Ireland to address stress in its banking sector, a comprehensive range of measures – including deleveraging and restructuring of the banking sector – will contribute to ensuring that the banking system performs its role in the functioning of the economy.”

The Eurogroup (countries which are in the Eurozone) and the IMF both issued statements of support for the bailout request. “We welcome the measures taken to date by Ireland to deal with issues in its banking sector,” said the finance ministers in the Eurogroup statement. “However, market conditions have not normalized and pressures remain, giving rise to concerns that further reforms and stabilization measures may be appropriate.” The agencies, along with the Irish government, have reportedly established that it will take at least $70 billion for the bailout, and possibly more, depending on an examination of the country’s debt.