Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he has made contact with any of the EU leaders recently in relation to the promissory note; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40098/12]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he has undertaken any initiative relating to arranging bilateral meetings for the principal purpose of putting Ireland's case relating to the funding of bank related debt. [40258/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 89 and 91 together.

As the Deputy is aware, the Irish Government has been working extremely hard to secure a deal on the Irish bank debt and further detailed work will be stepped up to ensure that the positive moves in Europe are harnessed to maximise the benefit to the Irish taxpayer. This is on the back of the Euro Area summit statement of 29 June of this year and the on-going work remains one of the Government’s key priorities.

On 12 and 13 September I travelled to Paris, Berlin and Rome for meetings with my counterparts in the respective Ministries of Finance. These meetings were part of our on-going consultations with our European colleagues, at all levels, to support broader understanding of the extent to which we are living up to our commitments under the EU-IMF Joint Programme of Assistance, as well as the remaining challenges we face.

A priority item on the agenda in each of these meetings was the issue of the promissory note. I am glad to say that we met with strong appreciation of our situation and we were able to have very constructive dialogue in each case on our approach to this question. We will be continuing our engagement with the Troika and our partners in the European Union with a view to a satisfactory resolution of this issue and other related questions.