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Troika say Ireland remains on track

Thursday, October 25 12:30:42

Ireland has today successfully concluded the eighth review mission of our EU-IMF Programme, minister for Finance, Michael Noonan said today.

However, he said that there are some tough decisions to be made before Ireland can exit the bailout next year and that the negotiations on our legacy banking debts are ongoing with the Troika to reduce this burden.

He said that the review mission, which started on October 16th, has involved a detailed assessment of the fiscal position, the macroeconomic outlook, progress on the restructuring of the financial sector and broader structural reforms in line with the commitments set out for the third quarter of 2012.

The review also included a forward looking element which culminated in the agreement of the programme commitments for the upcoming quarter and the remainder of the programme.

"The objective of all parties is to position Ireland to emerge from the programme next year and the commitments in the programme are designed to support the economy's potential to grow and create jobs," he said.

"We are pleased to confirm Ireland has successfully completed the 8th Review Mission and we continue to meet all of our targets. To date over 160 commitments have been fulfilled on time and we have drawn down some 80pc of the funding. The Government remains fully committed to restoring order to the public finances, to building on and broadening the economic recovery and positioning Ireland to continue our return to the markets. Throughout the course of the review we have demonstrated significant progress on delivering on these commitments. However, significant challenges remain and getting people back to work remains the key priority of the Government," Ministers Noonan and Howlin said in a joint statement.

"We are delivering on our commitments but the real test of Ireland's programme will be emerging from the programme, getting fully back into the markets and building a sustainable and long lasting economic recovery."

"Since the last review of the programme in July the NTMA have returned to the financial markets and over E5 billion of private funding has been raised. There have also been a number of very important jobs announcements from both indigenous and foreign companies highlighting the improvements in Ireland's competitiveness and the flexibility and skill of the Irish labour force. However, many challenges remain including the heavy burden of debt associated with the recapitalization of the banking sector and work is ongoing with the Troika to reduce this burden in line with the June 29th Agreement."