SENIOR OFFICIALS from the International Monetary Fund, the EU Commission and the European Central Bank will hold talks with senior Government Ministers today as they begin their sixth quarterly assessment of Ireland’s bailout programme.
As the delegation from the troika arrived last night to begin its 10-day review of how Ireland is performing under the bailout programmes, senior Government sources expressed confidence that all conditions of the bailout have been met so far.
The sources also confirmed that the issue of promissory notes would be a central focus for discussions between Government officials and the troika.
While the Government did succeed in converting a €3.06 billion annual payment due at the end of last month into a long-term bond, the discussions on the wider issue of the €30 billion promissory note issued primarily to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide has not been resolved as yet.
Officials from the three institutions are working on a technical paper, but it is unlikely to be completed until later in the year.
“There is no anticipation [within Government] that the promissory note issue will be finalised during this review,” said the source.
“It is certain it will be discussed but a report will not be produced over the next 10 days.”
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin will meet today with the heads of mission from the three institutions. They are Ajai Chopra, the European deputy director of the IMF, the ECB’s chief economist Klaus Masuch and Istvan Szekely of the European Commission.
Mr Noonan, speaking in Limerick yesterday, said it would be a normal review. “They go through what we were supposed to have done for the previous quarter. And effectively we have done everything we’re supposed to have done, so that part of it is going to be pretty easy.
“And then we’ll be looking forward to the next quarter and to the remainder of the year, and we’ll have discussions on all of that.” Mr Noonan said today’s meeting would be a kind of “getting to know you meeting”.
He said the only big change was that Mr Masuch, the representative of the ECB, was now transferred on a full-time basis to Greece. “There’s a new representative of the new central bank coming in on the first of May, so this is Klaus’s last meeting with us.”
Among the other big issues that will be discussed will be the future of Permanent TSB, which will have to be decided by the end of April, according to the memorandum.
Officials from the commission and the IMF will also look very closely at the latest set of economic figures. While ahead of target, some analysts suggest the growth figures on which the Government is working are too optimistic.
The Government also published a spate of legislation and draft legislation towards the end of March. There were also requirements in relation to bringing forward proposals on water charges, labour-market reform and identifying State assets most suitable for disposal.
