This is breaking that Prof. Honohan will seek leave from the ECB to not repay part of the promissory note worth 3.1 billion due at the end of this month. This is good news in the short run (and something Karl, Brian and I spoke at length about recently at the Oireachtas)
From the piece:
The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan confirmed in the Dáil this evening that negotiations were taking place with the ECB about settling the promissory note by delivery of an Irish government bond.
The concession may facilitate a longer-term effort to cut the cost of Ireland’s banking rescue, which helped tip the nation into an international bailout in 2010.
The immediate questions are:
1. What interest rate(s) will be charged on this(these) bond(s) and at what maturity(ies)?
2. What will fund the asset side of the balance sheet of the IBRC?
3. It looks to me like the promissory notes are going to be funded by the EFSF, or some other funding structure, but specifically what funding structure at the EU level will the bond use?
Update: RTE’s David Murphy reported on Twitter that the government are proposing to pay off the note with a bond which matures in 2025. If ECB says yes, the government gets 13 year delay on the €3bn payment.
Update2: Karl has the text of Minister Noonan’s speech on his blog now.