Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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79. To ask the Minister for Finance the way the prolongation of maturities in some of Ireland's debts will affect Budget 2014; and if he will outline the likely period of additional scrutiny including visits by the Troika or EU Commission these extensions will bring. [23945/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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At the Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings in Dublin last month, EU Finance Ministers agreed in principle, subject to national procedures, to lengthen the maturities of the EFSF and EFSM loans to Ireland and Portugal by increasing the weighted average maturity of the loans by seven years. This is also conditional on continued successful programme implementation being confirmed by the Troika together with completion of the 9th review of the Irish adjustment programme and of the 7th review of the Portuguese programme. The 9th review of Ireland’s programme has now completed all approval stages by both the IMF and the EU. The principal benefits of the maturities extension will be the smoothing of our debt redemption profile, the consequent improvement in our ability to fund ourselves in the financial markets and the beneficial impact on our debt sustainability. It is not a measure intended to directly improve our deficit. Accordingly the extension of maturities will not have any impact on Budget 2014.

Any cash savings that may arise would only build up gradually over the full lifetime of the extended maturities.

As to its impact on the duration of post programme surveillance, I have already explained, in response to a Parliamentary Question on 21 March 2013 (PQ No 59), that until the details of the implementation of the maturity extension are known, it will not be possible to assess the impact, if any, of such changes on the duration of the post-programme surveillance arrangements.

Formal approval by Ministers for the extension of our EFSF and EFSM loans is now expected to be provided next month, after which the details of its implementation can be finalised.