Noonan denies Kenny being economical with truth on debt

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has dismissed a claim by Fianna Fáil that Taoiseach Enda Kenny was economical with the truth when he said the State had benefitted from €50 billion in savings from various debt agreements from lenders.

Asked about the issue in Brussels on Friday, Mr Noonan said he had given a “long and detailed exposition and explanation” of where the savings were made in an answer to a parliamentary question last week in the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath said he had requested the information about the €50 billion debt savings claim from Mr Noonan.

“When I asked the Minister for Finance recently to provide a breakdown of the €50 billion, it became clear that €40 billion of the €50 billion is accounted for by longer loan maturities,” he said.

“The Government are actually claiming the extension in the time period to repay the bailout loans and the cost of rescuing Anglo Irish Bank as savings when in fact these amounts have just been pushed out to a later date.”

Repeatedly asked during an RTÉ Prime Time interview on Thursday night if his Government had failed to secure a better debt deal for Ireland in negotiations with the Troika, Mr Kenny insisted that the Government had negotiated €50 billion reductions in borrowing requirements.