Noonan named Europe’s top finance minister

Michael Noonan has been named European Finance Minister of the Year 2014 just four years after the late Brian Lenihan was named Europe’s worst by the Financial Times.

The award was made by the influential magazine The Banker, which is owned by the Financial Times. The magazine praised Mr Noonan’s handling of the economy and his ability to successfully steer Ireland out of the troika bailout and back into the markets.

According to senior editor Philip Alexander, Mr Noonan “pushed a large chunk of debt out a very long way” by securing last February’s Anglo promissory note deal and his subsequent handling of the economy had managed to “establish trust with institutions and investors” as witnessed by this week’s raising of €3.5bn on the markets.