Deal on debt to generate less than €15bn

Ireland is likely to get little more than €15bn for the banks it has pumped €28bn of taxpayers’ money into as part of a deal the Government hopes to agree later this year with the EU’s bailout fund.

Another €31bn for the defunct Anglo Irish Bank will most likely remain on the State’s books but the crippling annual repayments of €3.1bn are likely to be spread over a longer time.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he did not want to predict how much of the €64bn spent on the banks he would be able to offload onto the EU’s new rescue fund, the ESM.