Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The context was that Greece was failing to meet the conditions of its programme, although neither Ireland nor Portugal was failing in that regard. Therefore, it is couched in terms of a new set of easements to facilitate Greece. The Greeks will receive a lower interest rate and there will be flexibility on the maturities and other details. These will then be applied to Ireland and Portugal, even though neither is having a difficulty with its programme. That is the way it is structured.

The advice I received when I inquired about this matter was that we would have flexibility on the terms of the maturities. If we thought it was in our interest to have longer maturities, we could go that way; if we thought it was not, we could stick with the period of 7.5 years and EFSF management would have discretion to facilitate us. It is a question of judgment. I have not yet received the advice of the NTMA. We are in the early stages of the programme negotiated only last November-December. We are not yet 12 months into it and as we work our way through it, we can see what is to our best advantage. Everything helps us to move on and restore the country to economic growth.

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