Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance

10:20 am

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

It is just a technical arrangement to ease the drawdown of funds that we do not need up-front so that does not lengthen the programme. There is nothing mysterious about the date of 15 December. The European programme ends on 9 December while the IMF programme ends on 15 December or maybe vice versa. The date of 15 December is the third anniversary of one component of the programme and then the programme is over. It is not that we are picking a date, that it is pre-Christmas or that there is a big hoopla about this. It just happens to be the anniversary of the signing of the programme in the first instance. To be precise, the technical arrangement for the final drawdown going into early February does not affect the ending of the programme. It is just an arrangement that has been made to allow us full access to the full amount of money promised. The anniversary date is simply the anniversary date but we will be making our decisions clear and announcing them before that date.

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