Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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57. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the forthcoming parliamentary votes in other EU jurisdictions to facilitate Ireland in early repayment of IMF loan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45546/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I am proposing to make an early repayment of approximately €18.3 billion of Ireland's €22.5 billion IMF loan, which is the portion subject to the highest rate of charge, and to replace it, in a measured way, with less expensive market funding subject to prevailing market conditions. The early repayment will take place in tranches, with the first tranche of approximately €9 billion planned for next month.

For this to succeed, a waiver is required of the mandatory proportional early repayment clauses which are included in each of our loan agreements with the EFSF and the EFSM, and with our bilateral lenders, the U.K., Denmark and Sweden.

The waiver for the EFSF and EFSM loans has already been agreed by the Euro and EU 28 member states respectively, in accordance with their national procedures, including parliamentary approval where necessary.  These general waivers are subject to approval of the individual repayment tranches by the EFSF Board of Directors and the EU Commission, respectively.

In addition, all bilateral lenders have now confirmed the waiver in respect of their loans to us, in accordance with their national approval procedures.  The most recent of these was the Swedish Government's agreement on 20 November to a waiver of the mandatory proportional early repayment clauses of its loans to Ireland following the Swedish Parliament's approval the previous day. The EFSF and EFSM can now complete the waiver process which will facilitate the first early repayment. When the formal process has been completed I expect that the NTMA will complete the first tranche of early repayments during December.