‘Benefit’ to using bond for €3.1bn Anglo bill

Using a Government bond to settle a €3.06bn payment due for Anglo Irish Bank next week would have a “positive cash-flow benefit for the State”, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil.

There is frenzied work at political and technical level to complete details on postponing the payment by way of a promissory note following a tepid response from the ECB.

The work in Dublin and Brussels is concentrating just on this payment, and the Government does not expect to resolve the full €31bn promissory notes debt until later in the year.