Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of the targets set out in the original Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2010 that have been fully met; the number of targets to date that have been deferred; and the number of targets that have been missed. [25639/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The original Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been updated considerably since it was signed in December 2010. It was first updated following the combined first and second reviews in April 2011, and it has been updated after each subsequent quarterly review. Each update to the MoU can include the continuation of, or revisions to, existing commitments along with new commitments. Taking this into account, the relevant commitments are those due for the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 amounting to 19 in total. Of these, all commitments were met with one exception. In the case of bank recapitalisation, the commitment was to complete this by end February 2011. However, the then Minister for Finance, the late Mr Brian Lenihan T.D., decided that, as the general election had been called, it would be inappropriate to implement the condition at that time, and it was accordingly deferred with the agreement of the Troika. The bank recapitalisation was completed, following a rigorous PCAR stress test, by July 2011, at a cost considerably below that initially envisaged.

The amendments of the MoU following the combined 1st and 2nd review, included changes to take account of the newly elected Government's policy priorities. Among the changes made were the reversal of the cut to the minimum wage, agreement on the Jobs Initiative, the end of transfers of sub €20 million loans to NAMA. In addition, the commitments in respect of fiscal consolidation for 2012 and 2013 were also amended to take account of Government priorities. As the Deputy will be aware, our programme implementation record has been strong. We have met all of our commitments to date on time, amounting to over 100 actions, including the deferred banking recapitalisation target.