Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Finance his views regarding the content of his recent meetings with the United States Treasury Secretary, Mr. Timothy Geithner, and the concerns he expressed that the Irish bailout programme could be derailed by poor and slowing growth in the domestic and wider European economy. [2328/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The last time that I met formally with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was in June of last year in Washington. In terms of the discussion, I assured Secretary Geithner that our programme was on track, as had been confirmed in various quarterly reviews, and that political ownership of the programme was strong. Macroeconomic developments at both the European and global level were also discussed, and I impressed upon him the openness of the Irish economy and, as such, its high degree of sensitivity to international developments. I also took the opportunity to outline my belief that the design of the EU/IMF programme of support for Ireland could be improved, which I believe is in all of our interests.