INDEPENDENT TD SHANE Ross has said he doubts if the government will be able to secure a deal on the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes before a €3.1 billion payment is due at the end of the month.
He was speaking as the government refused to rule out the possibility of a deal being done to adjust the repayment terms and conditions for the IOUs before a payment of €3.1 billion falls due on 31 March.
“I think that a deal will be done without very much doubt,” Ross told TheJournal.ie but he said it was “doubtful” as to whether it would be done before the next repayment falls due.
“I think there was going to be a deal done but I think now it has possibly been delayed specifically because of the political implications,” he added.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan told reporters in Paris today that a deal was achievable. “In European affairs things go right up till the end,” he is quoted as saying on RTÉ.
Ross noted that it was politically important for the government to be seen to get a deal on the promissory notes: “It’s psychologically very important now, it’s politically quite important now for the government to get it done.”
Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said earlier that a deal was still possible on the notes as his Sinn Féin counterpart Pearse Doherty said that the government should tell the EU it is not going to pay the money at all.
“The Government at this point needs to tell EU institutions that this is the deal. We should not be waiting for a deal to be struck on lengthening the timeframe or whatever other hare-brained idea the Minister has which still boils down to this debt being carried by the Irish people,” he said.
The promissory notes issue centres on money that is actually owed to the Central Bank as it created the money itself in order to fund Anglo Irish Bank before it went insolvent during the banking crisis.
Such IOUs are promissory notes are guaranteed by the State meaning that writing off the debt – not paying it – or restructuring it would mean that more money would be in circulation in the economy.
This measure would require the prior approval of the European Central Bank’s governing council which met last month but did not discuss the issue according to president Mario Draghi.
This further increases the likelihood that a deal will not be done prior to the 31 March when €3.1 billion is due to be paid to the Central Bank, taken out of circulation and effectively destroyed.
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