Power: Any relief would be a help

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is facing the next round of talks aimed at getting a deal on reducing Ireland's bank debt today, but chief economist at Friends First Jim Power says that it is too late for senior debt relating to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, with much of it already having been paid.

Noonan is due to meet the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi in Frankfurt following reports that the ECB could change tack on the issue of burning senior bondholders, after it came up during talks on helping Spanish banks.

But Power says any debt relief would be a help: "Any decision that's made at European level in this context will have to benefit Ireland. There was no way two or three years ago, when the problem in Europe was really Ireland's, that they were going to burn senior bondholders.

"But they now see that the problem is becoming a much bigger one when Spanish banks are in serious difficulty so they now, at last, have to sit up and pay serious attention."