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Breaking stories
EU breakthrough will not ease budget: Noonan
By Paul O’Brien, Political Correspondent
The bank-debt breakthrough at the EU summit will not lessen the effects of the December budget, Michael Noonan has said.
The finance minister signalled that the projected €3.5bn combination of tax hikes and spending cuts in Budget 2013 would remain unchanged.But he expressed hope that the severity of budgets in subsequent years would be lessened as a result of the EU agreement.
Mr Noonan responded tetchily to suggestions that the agreement was not the “seismic shift” or game- changer as claimed by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
“We’re not in this programme to finish it by next Christmas,” he said. “We’re planning the economy for a number of years ahead.
“The seismic shift is if we can succeed in shifting bank debt away from the sovereign balance sheet. That has huge improvements for the economy as a whole, and will have beneficial effects on the budget down the line. But not on next year’s budget.”
Under the deal, it is envisaged that the EU’s permanent bailout fund, the ESM, will be used to recapitalise banks, rather than individual member states doing so.
Because Ireland has already re-capitalised its banks, the Government expects the agreement to be applied retrospectively here, with a large chunk of the bank debt transferred to the ESM. That would mean Ireland’s sovereign debt levels would fall significantly, and make it cheaper and easier to borrow on the international money markets.
In theory, Ireland would still be responsible for paying back the bank debt to the ESM. It does not represent a debt write-down, Mr Noonan said yesterday.
But he expressed cautious optimism that a way could be found of transferring the debt to the ESM that would make its repayment much less onerous on Ireland. As an example, he said if debt from AIB or Bank of Ireland were transferred to the ESM, the State’s share-holding could also be transferred.
“The value of the shares at one side of the balance sheet would eventually pay for the debt that was transferred on the other side of the balance sheet over the period of time, and it would be a long period of time,” he said.
FF’s Michael McGrath said the Government must clarify how much of the €64bn pumped into the banks could be “revisited”.
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