Jose Manuel Barroso: Ireland bailout exit is 'quite encouraging'

The Irish government has said that after three years of austerity, it has completed its international debt bailout programme, the first eurozone country to do so.

The finance minister, Michael Noonan, said that reforms must continue, but from now on the Irish government would be in charge of the process.

The government's actions over the last three years won praise from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

He said: "Ireland has basically recovered all the competitiveness it has lost in the previous decade."