Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will request permission to repay Ireland’s IMF loans prior to the maturity dates without triggering the need to repay other loans under the EU-IMF programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16171/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As I have previously outlined in my reply to PQ  6839/14 of 11 February 2014, the question of early repayment of any one lender cannot be treated in isolation from other lenders and market expectations for when programme loans are due to be repaid. The early repayment of IMF funds would trigger automatic mandatory proportional early repayments to the EFSF, EFSM, United Kingdom, Kingdom of Sweden and Kingdom of Denmark. This would apply in respect of each of the programme funding partners.

The impact of early repayment of our IMF loans on our bond yields would need to be carefully considered were such a possibility to arise. Should that possibility arise, I would take the advice of the NTMA on this matter. If such a proposal were to be pursued, the agreement of the other lenders would of course be required. The matter of early repayment of our IMF loans, and thus requesting permission to repay Ireland's IMF loans prior to the maturity dates, does not arise at the moment but we will keep it under review. I should also point out that, as the IMF loans have a shorter average maturity, they will be repaid considerably in advance of the EFSF and EFSM loans for which we negotiated maturity extensions.