THE GOVERNMENT said last night it is confident it will meet all the conditions in the latest quarterly review of Ireland’s international bailout programme which begins today.
Officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund arrive in Dublin for the seventh review of the programme agreed in November 2010. The review will last 10 days, with an emphasis on continuing programme implementation as well as intensive discussions on measures that might be included in the troika’s memorandum to further encourage growth in the Irish economy.
Ahead of the arrival of the team of about 40 officials, the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure said there was a high level of confidence all targets laid down for this quarter will be met.
The Department of Finance also noted this review marked the halfway point of the four-year programme. A spokesman said more than 120 measures stipulated in the memorandum of understanding have now been completed. Under the timetable, Ireland would be returning to raise funds on the international markets in early 2014.
He also said that the State will have drawn down about €53 billion (78.5 per cent) of programme funding by the end of this week, when the latest tranche of €2.3 billion is received. In all, international loans amounted to €67 billion of the overall €85 billion package.
According to Government officials, the two key issues that will be discussed with the troika will be programme implementation and the growth agenda. “Sources also identified other major specific issues: evaluating progress on the sale of State assets; the issue of legacy bank debt as it emerged from last week’s summit in Brussels; as well as the continuing technical discussions on dealing with Ireland’s efforts to alleviate the financial burden on the State associated with servicing the €30 billion Anglo Irish Bank promissory note.”
There will also be some discussion with senior Coalition figures on some of the outline measures the Government intends to include in the budget in order to meet the €3 billion in further savings stipulated for 2013.
The spokesman in Finance last night said the “strong programme implementation has been recognised by our European partners, by the IMF, by the markets and most recently by the heads of state and government in Brussels last Friday.”
The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan emphasised at the weekend the importance of fulfilling the programme down to its last details.
