FINANCE MINISTER MICHAEL Noonan will meet with the head of the eurozone’s permanent bailout fund, Klaus Regling, in Dublin this morning.
The head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is in the capital for talks on Ireland’s exit from the EU-IMF bailout with the issue of using the bailout fund for retroactive recapitalisation of Ireland’s banks not on the formal agenda, but likely to be discussed.
A spokesperson for the minister said that the meeting will be mainly about an update on current events including the departure of the Troika and the recent bond issue by the NTMA, where Ireland secured €3.75 billion of borrowing on the open market at rates of around 3.5 per cent.
While the use of the ESM to retroactively recapitalise Ireland’s two main pillar banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, is not on the main agenda, a spokesperson said that the position on the issue hasn’t changed and that “nothing will happen on it until later this year”.
Ireland has been pushing for the use of the ESM to retrospectively recapitalise its pillar banks which received billions of euro in State funding at the height of the financial crisis and wants EU leaders to honour an agreement in June 2012.
Regling has previously indicated that such recapitalisation using the fund that he heads “doesn’t seem very likely”.
European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has also appeared to rule out any use of the new eurozone bailout fund retrospectively last December, while the Taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted he had missed his own deadline to secure a deal.
Noonan and Regling are due to brief the media on their discussions at midday.
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