Howlin: Eurozone deal will make Ireland's repayments 'affordable'

The Minister for Public Sector Reform Brendan Howlin believes the new eurozone deal means Ireland can re-shape its bailout repayment schedule into an "affordable horizon".

Mr Howlin said the deal, which will see a 2% reduction in the interest rate on Ireland's EU/IMF bailout, will make our economic recovery "sustainable".

The cut will reduce the cost of the loan by around €800m a year.

The length of time Ireland has to repay the debt has also been doubled to 15 years.

Brendan Howlin said the €18bn we are borrowing this year to keep the country going is going to be more affordable.

He has insisted existing targets, like the €3.6bn in savings we need to make in next year's Budget, still need to be met.

However, Minister Howlin said a new schedule for our repayments is a good thing.

Mr Howlin said: "We can now reschedule that into an affordable horizon. It can make our economic recovery demonstrably sustainable in terms of the people we depend upon to loan.

"We expect that we can shape, over the next couple of weeks, a horizon that will be so clear to people that we can get back our economic sovereignty that is really do-able."