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Noonan says Ireland must wait for Spain

Friday, September 14 14:21:43

Finance Minister, Michael Noonan today presented Ireland's case for direct assistance to Ireland's banks via the ESM but said that the country must first wait for progress with Spanish banks.

Asked about progress on talks for direct bank recapitalisation he said: "I have spoken with my French, German and Italian colleagues and they are understanding of the position. Of course first the troika must finalise their work and after that we'll be actively recruiting political support."

"An arrangement which would have the direct recapitalisation of Spanish banks and applying that directly to Ireland is contingent on progress being made in Spain. The other element is bilateral conversations with the European Central Bank and that is ongoing .. I'm not prepared to predict a time frame," he said.

"The real success of the Irish program isn't returning to the markets because I think we are proving we can do that... The real success is getting the economy going and getting people back to work and that is going to take more time."

Asked what he would like to see at this meeting from Spain, he said: "I'd like them to set out their position because it hasn't been clear over the summer what their position is."

Meanwhile, Jean Claude Juncker, the head of the eurogroup of finance ministers has congratulated the Government for the progress it has made in implementing the EU-IMF programme and re-entering the bond markets.

Mr Juncker was speaking in Nicosia after the first session of an informal meeting.

He said the question of securing a deal on the reduction of Ireland's banking debt would be discussed again in upcoming meetings.

EU Commission Vice-President Olli Rehn said that the quality of the outcome of those negotiations is more important than the time schedule.

Mr Rehn said Ireland is going through an economic rebalancing which was necessary.

Ireland was also praised, along with Portugal, at the meeting in Cyprus by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

Jean-Claude Juncker also said at today's meeting that Greece will not learn whether it has done enough to get its next batch of bailout cash for at least a month. He said that decisions on Greece will not likely be made until the second half of October.