Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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197. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason Ireland voted no against the United Nations ad hoc mechanism on sovereign debt restructuring processes and missed the first meeting of the committee on sovereign debt restructuring; if the International Monetary Fund advised the Government in any way on Ireland's foreign affairs policies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15259/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland, in common with all other EU Member States, was unable to support the UN General Assembly Resolution last September on the modalities for the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 68/304 on the establishment of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes. The main focus of the resolution was the establishment of an ad hoc committee to elaborate a binding debt resolution mechanism.At the time of the vote, the EU explained that it had made extensive efforts and engaged in the process in good faith and reiterated the considerations outlined at the outset of negotiations, as follows: “The ad-hoc committee must be limited to the elaboration of a non-binding 'set of principles' which builds upon a market-based voluntary contractual approach to sovereign debt restructuring and aims at furthering its implementation and use. Neither the EU nor Member States will participate in discussions aiming at the establishment of a binding multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes.

The ad-hoc committee should reflect the recent and ongoing work on sovereign debt restructuring undertaken in the IMF, subject to the previous considerations, and should take place in close coordination with and with technical support from the Fund. Discussions should also make reference to the work in other fora on these issues, such as the Paris Club, which has a history of discussing sovereign debt restructuring issues.”

In the event, the resolution continued to propose the elaboration of a new legal framework. In these circumstances, the agreed EU position is that we will not be participating in the work of the committee.

Ireland considers that the work being undertaken at other levels, including in the IMF and at the international conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa in July, offers more appropriate and established means for dialogue on this issue. We are actively engaged in these processes.

Over recent years, the Government has had an engagement with the European Union, and with international financial institutions, including the IMF, which is unprecedented, both in range and depth. The Department of Finance manages Ireland’s engagement with the international financial institutions charged with helping ensure global financial stability and sustainable development, including the IMF and the World Bank.