New Irish government unlikely to play hardball at EU summits

The two largest parties to emerge from last week's snap Irish general election, centre-right Fine Gael and Labour, have agreed on a programme for government. The coalition pact comes days ahead of a pair of European summits where Dublin is hoping to win better terms on the €85 billion bail-out the EU and IMF agreed with the defeated Fianna Fail administration.

The two parties ahead of the election had both committed themselves to sticking to Brussels-imposed austerity, but differed on ...