Doubts over timing of bank debt deal

There is growing uncertainty over the timing of a restructuring deal on Irish bank debt that is currently the subject of negotiations between the Irish Government and the troika.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore cast doubt on whether an agreement would be reached by October. “We are progressing discussions with European institutions and with European member states on those issues. Under the agreement that was reached in June, it was intended that those discussions would continue up until the end of the year. We would hope that progress would be made on those discussions by the October summit meeting, but the discussions are continuing, and they will continue over the next number of weeks.”

When asked whether he expected a deal by October, Mr Gilmore said, “Well, you can’t — I mean, the formula that was agreed in June was one whereby the new arrangements would come into effect once a supervisory arrangement had been put in place, and that supervisory arrangement wasn’t intended to be in place until the end of the year. But it is possible of course that progress can be made faster than that, but we’ll progress it week by week.”