Ministers to plead with troika to cut interest bill

MINISTERS will plead with the EU/ECB/IMF troika to cut the multi-billion euro interest payments looming on the Anglo bailout as the foreign financial chiefs arrive in Ireland for a 10-day inspection of the state’s books.

The Government will also ask permission to divert a large swathe of the €2bn set to be raised from part privatising companies like ESB from debt repayments into job creation schemes.

After receiving a humiliating rebuff from European central Bank chairman Jean Claude Trichet over plans to burn bondholders, Finance Minister Michael Noonan will be hoping for more flexibility from the troika regarding the €3bn a year interest rate payments on the promissory notes the previous Fianna Fáil/Green government agreed to pay from 2013.