The guarded optimism expressed by the governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, when he spoke to an Oireachtas committee yesterday, carries some weight.

The Government is negotiating a restructuring of the €32bn in promissory notes that will be “very advantageous” to the Irish people, although this does not include any debt writedown, Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan told the Oireachtas finance committee yesterday.

Banks will have to agree to debt writedowns as part of the resolution of the mortgage crisis, Patrick Honohan, the Central Bank governor, has told the Oireachtas finance committee.