Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The NTMA will be the driver of the process and will have discussions with the European authorities to reprofile the outstanding debt using the flexibility of the extension on the maturities. If we think of a graph of the debt, some years there are peaks and some years there are troughs. The idea is to have an even profile of debt repayments by taking the tops off the peaks and increasing the troughs.

That is, in general terms, what will happen. The agreements have been made and the National Treasury Management Agency will engage with the funds and try to reorganise our debt profile to our best advantage. My objective from a policy point of view is to ensure NTMA sales of Irish paper in the market become a matter of routine, as they were before the crisis, rather than being a news event. We should have a steady profile and be able to fulfil our borrowing requirements with a couple of options each year without any of the drama that has been attendant on visits to the market in recent times.