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[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/business/2010/11/15/qmb.boulden.ireland.cnn[/video]
European ministers were expected to put pressure on Ireland to accept a bailout Tuesday as a way to get the country out of its financial troubles.
Ministers from the Eurogroup -- the group of 16 European Union countries using the euro currency -- were holding a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening in Brussels, a day after Ireland insisted it is not on the verge of defaulting on debts.
There are fears that Ireland's money woes could jeopardize the euro's stability.
In denying it faces default, Ireland's Ministry of Finance revealed Monday how serious the country's potential problem is.
"Ireland is fully funded till well into 2011," it said, suggesting less than a year's reserves are available.
The ministry denied Ireland had applied for a bailout, but said it was talking to "international colleagues in light of current market conditions."
The European Union and International Monetary Fund were forced to step in to bail Greece out in May of this year, coming up with a three-year, 110-billion-euro (currently $150 billion) loan to save Greece from defaulting on debt.
Janet Henry, the chief European economist at HSBC bank in London, estimated an Irish bailout could cost 80 billion euros ($109 billion).
The money could be available within three to four weeks of a request from Dublin, she predicted, saying the money would come from the EU and IMF.
Ireland's issue is a major banking problem, explained David Owen, the chief European financial economist and managing director of Jeffries International, Ltd.
"Given the size of the banking sector's balance sheet, 1.3 trillion euro ($1.8 trillion) in total with over 500 billion euro ($682 billion) of foreign deposits, (Ireland's banking problem) is in danger of becoming everyone's problem," he said.
Fears about Ireland can themselves move markets, he warned.
"We live in a world of negative feedback loops, where negative sentiment can rapidly feed off itself, changing economic fundamentals themselves," he said.
Although Ireland's economy is relatively small, it can have also an effect on the much larger British economy, he said.
"Ireland is systemically important for the U.K., partly through trade links, but importantly also through banking," he said.
"Ireland appears to be under mounting pressure from elsewhere in the Eurozone to ask for assistance," said Henry of HSBC.
"The Irish government has no immediate funding needs and still hopes to be able reassure the markets when it unveils the details of the December 7 budget," she said.