Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Minister for Finance when the revised maturity date for Ireland’s EFSM loans will be decided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4165/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Eurogroup meeting of Euro-area Finance Ministers decided on 21 January 2013 to examine the extension of maturities on Portugal's and Ireland's European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) loans.

At the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) on 22 January 2013 the Finance Ministers representing the 27 EU member states  agreed to examine the maturities of the loans drawn down under the EFSM programme.

The April 2013 Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings in Dublin agreed in principle to extend the maximum average maturity of both Ireland's and Portugal's EFSF and EFSM loans by seven years, subject to certain conditions (both countries continued successful programme implementation being confirmed by the Troika together with the 9th review of the Irish adjustment programme and the 7th review of the Portuguese programme).

These conditions having been met, the extensions were confirmed at the June Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings.

The Amendment to the EFSM Loan Facility Agreement entered into force on 3 September 2013 and was laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas on 4 September 2013. 

While the revised maturity dates of Ireland's EFSF loans have been agreed and the details set out, the revised maturity dates of Ireland's  EFSM loan will only be determined as they approach their original maturity dates. As the EFSM operates in the debt markets to borrow on behalf of others, specific refinancing activity may be subject to overall funding plans and market conditions. It is possible therefore that individual EFSM loan tranches will be extended more than once in order to achieve the objective of increasing the original weighted-average maturity to 19.5 years although it is not expected that Ireland will have to repay any of its EFSM loans before 2027.

The following below, supplied by the NTMA, shows the current maturity dates for each of the tranches of EFSM funding drawn down to date. The loan maturity extensions are not reflected in the table.

 European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) loan tranches to Ireland as at 28/01/14

The nominal EFSM loan amount outstanding as of 28 January 2014 is €21.7 billion. The final tranche of €0.8 billion from the EFSM is expected to be drawn down in March 2014.