Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on any recent discussions he has had with Troika officials. [43026/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware review missions to Ireland by the three external partners, the EU, the ECB and the IMF (the Troika) take place each quarter as part of the regular review process of our EU-IMF programme. The eighth review mission took place from Tuesday October 16th to Thursday October 25th 2012. In line with each of the previous quarterly reviews, Ireland has met all of the commitments and our continued strong programme implementation has been recognized by the Troika. My colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin T.D., and I met with the EU-IMF delegation during the recent quarterly review of the EU / IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. These meetings were also attended by senior officials from both Departments. A wide range of topics was covered at these meetings, including financial reforms, structural reforms, economic developments and the progress of the Programme. In addition, the nature of the review mission is that it involves a large number of technical meetings which were attended by officials from my Department, and when appropriate from other Departments, the Central Bank and the NTMA.

The quarterly review process is an integral part of our EU-IMF support programme. The process starts with a review mission and ends with consideration and approval by the EU (Commission and Council) and the IMF Executive Board. Following each review mission the external partners and the Irish authorities agree updated programme documents, specifically the Letters of Intent, the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality, the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies and the Technical Memorandum of Understanding. Once finalised, the Letters of Intent are signed jointly by the Minister for Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank and are issued to the EU and the IMF, along with the accompanying programme documents. These documents are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and placed on the Department of Finance website following their transmission. The process is expected to conclude in December.

I would also point out that contacts at official level between the Irish authorities and the EU, the ECB and the IMF concerning the support programme continue between review missions.