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

The Irish debt position is entirely sustainable. The problem is in Greece, not in Ireland. If one looks at the money raised by the NTMA since Christmas, yesterday a 30-year bond was issued for the first time in the history of the State. Some 380 investors wished to buy 30-year Irish paper, at just over 2%. If we are getting money for 30 years at a rate of 2%, it is very hard to say anything other than that Irish debt is entirely sustainable. A week ago our three-month T-bills were at a zero interest rate. In effect, people gave us €500 million to mind with no interest rate charge. At the end of January a seven-year bond was issued. The rate was 1.867%, well below the rate of 2% for seven-year money. That is what has happened since Christmas.

The position of Greece is different. The talk about a debt conference, in respect of Greece or the European Union at large, arose from the election manifesto of the party that won the election in Greece. However, I have been very careful in reading everything that has been said that I can find by the Prime Minister of Greece and its Minister for Finance, neither of whom has pursued the debt conference idea. They seem to be in discussions with their partners across Europe, the Commission and the ECB. This seems to be the route they are going down. This was the route followed by Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland and every other country which was in difficulty, namely, to engage with the Eurogroup and ECOFIN.

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