Updated at 3pm
A FINE GAEL MEP has said the government saved Irish taxpayers €10.3 billion by renegotiating the terms of the Troika bailout programme.
Brian Hayes said that at the start of the programme, in 2011, the department of finance estimated national debt repayments would be €28.7 billion for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 – whereas the actual amount paid for these years was €22.29 billion, accounting for savings of €6.4 billion.
Four years ago, the estimate of debt repayment for 2015 was €11.3 billion, while the latest forecast was €7.4 billion – a downward revision of €3.9 billion.
“Altogether the figures show that the government will save €10.3 billion due to four years of steady renegotiation of the Troika bailout programme, including the promissory note deal and the early IMF repayment deal. This is money we will never have to repay,” Hayes said.
The Dublin MEP stated that “prudent negotiation” had led to a “much improved” situation for taxpayers and low borrowing costs for the country.
We have come through some very tough years and a lot of pain but now confidence has returned to the Irish economy and our debt situation is now sustainable. The NTMA can now take advantage of the low interest rates and is able to manage Irish debt in a very effective way.
“By replacing the promissory note with a cheaper funding model, we will have to borrow €20 billion less over the next decade as a result. We have delivered interest savings of over €10 billion and reduced by €20 billion the amount of money the State will have to borrow over the next decade by extending the maturities on our European loans,” Hayes added.
In February, the former IMF chief of mission to Ireland Ashoka Mody told Newstalk the government had “absolutely” missed out on an opportunity to strike a debt writedown deal with the Troika in 2010.
Politicians are continuing to look at ways for ECB officials to “engage” with the banking inquiry after the bank’s president Mario Draghi said officials cannot meet the committee “owing to the ECB’s accountability to European institutions and primarily to the European Parliament”.
The inquiry is aiming to establish the events that led to the Troika bailout.
Greece
In February, Finance Minister Michael Noonan told Bloomberg Greece should follow Ireland’s lead of negotiating its way through financial crisis – rather than demanding the “nuclear option” of writing off debt or ditching the euro.
Over the weekend, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis confirmed the country would make its next loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund, due on Thursday.
This followed reports that Greek officials have been drawing up a plan to take over the country’s banks and re-introduce the drachma.
First posted at 11am.
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