The European Union would like to see Ireland's "bad bank" scheme to purge its lenders of risky property loans up and running as soon as possible to help revive growth in the worst-performing economy in western Europe.
"My wishes for the next couple of months here are first that Nama (National Asset Management Agency) will be adopted by the parliament as soon as possible," said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who is on a visit to Dublin.
"It is a ... needed instrument to tackle the problems in the banking sector."
The Government this week tweaked the legislation creating Nama to make it more palatable to members of its junior coalition partner the Greens, who are due to vote on the law at a party convention tomorrow.
Mr Almunia, who was in Dublin for talks with the Government on its ballooning budget deficit, said efforts to tackle the shortfall should focus on spending cuts in the next budget in December.
"Probably the expenditure side should take the burden of the most important aspects of the adjustment," he said.
Ireland's budget shortfall is proportionately the worst in the euro zone despite efforts to hike taxes and trim spending and Dublin needs to redouble its efforts despite public opposition in December's austerity budget, the third in 12 months.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan admitted last week that this year's budget deficit would be around 12 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), above a target of 10.75 per cent and four times the EU limit, as tax revenues continue to sag.
Brussels has given Ireland until 2013 to get its deficit back to 3 per cent of GDP.
Additional reporting: Reuters