Promissory note should be renegotiated, says Burton

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said today that there is no reason why Ireland cannot get the terms of the repayment of a €31bn debt renegotiated.

Minister Burton was speaking at a gathering of Chartered Accountants in Dublin this afternoon.

The promissory note relates to funds that had to be injected into the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.

Minister Burton said that it is up to the ECB to decide whether we can change the length of the repayment, to make it more affordable.

"We took out a €31bn promissory note, payable down in 10 years, now that's basically €3bn a year, which is the first call in terms of the resources of the State," she said.

"It's extremely onerous, it was probably a clever piece of financial engineering at the time, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be renegotiated, because it's essentially an I.O.U to ourselves - it's really an I-O-Me."