Delay and uncertainty after Irish prime minister Brian Cowen says he will seek parliamentary backing for the €85bn bailout

The International Monetary Fund postponed approving a multibillion-euro loan package for Ireland yesterday after Irish prime minister Brian Cowen said he was going to seek parliamentary approval for the bailout.

Any vote to approve the €85bn (£71bn) joint IMF/EU rescue package next week is likely to be passed, but the politically charged decision to put it to the Dáil creates further uncertainty and delays. Highlighting the depth of the crisis, data yesterday revealed Irish banks' growing dependence on funding from the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of Ireland, with estimated borrowings of some €140bn.

The bailout is intended to wean Irish banks off such assistance, halting an outflow of corporate deposits and allowing them to return to the money markets again. But analysts said the banks' need for such funding would continue until they laid out plans to shrink their assets – a requirement of the emergency aid – and started selling off loans next year.

The IMF's board will now consider its €22.5bn portion of the bailout on Thursday, assuming parliament passes the package in a vote on Wednesday.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan told parliament he expected Ireland to start accessing external funding early next year – earlier than had been expected.

Emboldened by the ease with which a tough austerity budget is passing through parliament, Cowen is apparently confident the bailout will get approval from the Dáil, despite his slim majority and plunging popularity.

The cutbacks and tax increases mark the start a four-year cycle of austerity that will squeeze €15bn out of an economy still suffering from a prolonged and painful recession.

Cowen's decision to put the bailout to a parliamentary vote, after previously saying he was not obliged to, is designed to put the main opposition parties under pressure ahead of a general election, likely in January or February. Fine Gael and Labour have criticised Cowen harshly for seeking external funds, attacking the deal as a humiliating loss of sovereignty. But both parties will have to work within the targets set down in the deal if they form a new government, as expected, in the first quarter of next year.

Lenihan told parliament that if the next government departed from the four-year plan, it would do so "at its peril".

"There's no point in deluding ourselves about what must be done," he said. "We have to accept there are no easy options."

Fitch ratings agency, which stripped Ireland of its A credit rating this week, said it would take the country several years to get back an A rating.