MICHAEL NOONAN IS having a good Saturday.
The Minister for Finance has got official confirmation from the rest of the EU’s finance ministers that Ireland can pay back its IMF loans earlier than expected
The agreement was made at an informal meeting today in Milan. It will potentially save the State €1.5 billion over the next five years.
Enda Kenny has described the deal as a “significant achievement”.
Speaking after the meeting, Michael Noonan said it was another “piece of the jigsaw” in getting Ireland’s economy back on track.
“I am delighted to be able to announce today that we have now cleared all the political hurdles required to support our plan to replace portions of our IMF loans with cheaper market funding,” he said.
Following discussions with the leaders of various institutions earlier in the week, there were three important hurdles to clear this weekend: support from Eurogroup Ministers, Ecofin Ministers, and our bilateral lenders, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark.
Noonan said that he was hopeful that the NTMA will be in a position to refinance the first tranche of Ireland’s IMF loans by the end of this year.
“This is a further piece of the jigsaw of improving our debt sustainability and will have real and positive impact for the Irish taxpayer”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say