Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The core Government objective is to enhance Ireland's capacity to repay its debts in order that we can get back into the markets when the programme is drawing to a close and fund at reasonable amounts. We wish to become a normal eurozone country, that is, one which is no longer involved with the programme. The primary objective is to enhance our capacity to repay. If anybody has a good suggestion on how we can achieve this objective, I will examine it. My suggestion to the European authorities for several months has been as follows. If the most expensive element facing us, namely, the arrangement by way of promissory note for the funding of Anglo Irish Bank, as it was known, were replaced by an alternative financial instrument of lower coupon and longer duration, the benefit arising would be that the markets, when they look at Ireland, would conclude that this particular obstacle has been relieved and the country's capacity to repay has been increased significantly. Given our capacity to repay, they would then decide they could lend to us again at low interest rates.

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