Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 130 together.

I met with the troika delegation on 17 April together with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and a number of senior officials from our Departments. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange views on how the programme is progressing in terms of meeting our targets since the previous quarterly review.

This is the troika's sixth quarterly review and the primary focus is to evaluate our performance against the targets set for the end of the first quarter of 2012 and to assess progress on targets due in the coming quarter. There has been a series of meetings held with the troika to appraise all the elements of the programme covering fiscal developments, the macro-economic outlook, progress on commitments regarding restructuring the financial sector and structural reform. These meetings will conclude on Thursday, 26 April with a further meeting between the principals, Minister Noonan and myself.

Verification of the relevant quarterly targets forms a key part of the mission and the Government has repeatedly stated that meeting these conditions on time and on target is the best way to ensure we emerge successfully from this programme, which is our primary focus. It is important to build confidence in the State's ability to manage its debt and deficit to enable us to return with confidence to the financial markets for funding in as timely a manner as possible. This is one of the principal objectives of the programme. The Government's commitment to the programme does not stop us from seeking and agreeing changes to aspects of the programme. We have already done this successfully and the Government will continue to do so at the appropriate time.

Following each review mission, and arising from detailed and lengthy discussions with the troika team during it, revised versions of the programme documents, including the memorandum of understanding on specific economic policy conditionality, are prepared by officials of my Department and the Department of Finance along with officials from the Central Bank in conjunction with the external partners. It would be premature at this stage to comment on the possible outcome of these discussions, but I am satisfied there will be a positive outcome to the review.

It is also important to note that the relevant programme documents are made publicly available at the end of the process.

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