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Noonan says Troika will approve again

Wednesday, October 17 16:44:52

Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, today said that the 8th Review Mission on the EU/IMF Programme, which began yesterday, will show that Ireland is fully meeting its targets under the bailout programme.

"We are again in the position of having met our commitments under the programme for Q3 (end September 2012), both in terms of policy reforms as well as quantitative targets. A substantial number of actions - over 160 (by our count) - have now been completed," the Minister told the Dail Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform today.

The purpose of the quarterly review mission is to evaluate performance against the targets set for the fourth quarter of the programme of financial support for Ireland including fiscal developments, the macroeconomic outlook, progress on commitments in the restructuring of the financial sector and structural reform.

Mr Noonan said Ireland was moving in the right direction and he said that the 2011 deficit was within the limit set by the EU/IMF.

The Minister said that national debt and personal debt were the main drags on the domestic economy.

On mortgage arrears, Mr Noonan said the banks had been slow to move on recommendations. But he said he believed they were moving on them now. He added that the banks did not pay enough attention to arrears.

Mr Noonan also told the committee that the property tax will be introduced in the December Budget. He said it was likely to date from July next year.

On the bank debt deal, he said the June agreement was contingent on the banking supervision mechanism being in place by January 2013.