Tag: Michael Noonan

Michael Noonan has an article in the FT. There’s no mention of bondholders or new ECB facilities. We do get this, however:

We will, of course, repay our debts but we must ensure that the debt is sustainable and not such a burden that it could cripple the economy for generations.

The EU has helped make Ireland the business-friendly, entrepreneurial country it is today and the solidarity shown recently through liquidity support from the Eurosystem, the ECB and through the Europe Financial Stability Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and bilateral loans is greatly appreciated. It is in everyone’s interest that this support be repaid by the banks and we can ensure that that happens by pursuing policies that foster growth and boost market confidence.

Message: Ireland ♥ Europe and don’t worry about all that money we owe ye.

Michael Noonan puts forward some ideas for amending the bailout deal in an opinion piece for the Sunday Independent.   His focus is on ways to reduce the expected cost/risk to the State of cleaning up the banking mess.  

He suggests four main options: (i) have the EFSF put capital directly into systemically important European banks; (ii) have the EU provide insurance against bank losses beyond some specified level (an idea already suggested by Patrick Honohan); (iii) the fast-tracking of an EU-wide of a bank resolution regime (that presumably would not be limited to future bank creditors); and (iv) an ECB-funded special purpose vehicle for bank assets to avoid the alternative of firesales with losses rebounding on the State.