Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if there is any evidence that the formal programme of assistance with the EU/ECB/IMF of December 2010 or any of the supporting documents included a condition by the Troika or a commitment from the Government that all remaining unguaranteed senior bondholders in the covered institutions will be repaid in full; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5100/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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There is no specific reference to this in the programme documentation. However, as outlined previously, the Government considered burden sharing with unguaranteed bondholders in Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC). The Government always stated that we would not act unilaterally and we would only proceed with the agreement of the ECB and our EU partners. In this regard, as you are well aware and as I have set out on numerous occasions, the Government raised this issue with the ECB upon entering Government and I also had formal meetings with the ECB and EU Commission to discuss this specific issue.

As stated at various times and particularly in September 2011, our European partners have expressed strong reservations about burden sharing for senior bond holders in Anglo Irish Bank / INBS (now IBRC).

The value of the support that we are receiving from our European partners would outweigh any short term gain from imposing burden sharing on the remaining unguaranteed senior bonds in the face of European opposition to such a move. This is particularly the case given the majority of unguaranteed senior bondholders in IBRC were repaid during the previous Government’s period in office.