Greek crisis: Ireland will not seek changes to debt deals, says Noonan

The Government will not seek changes to its own debt arrangements on the foot of any offers made to Greece, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said.

Mr Noonan told RTÉ News that Ireland has already stuck agreements on extending the maturity of loans, and cited the promissory note deal in 2013. He said Ireland will not attempt to seek any further changes.

“We have done all that kind of thing already and we don’t intend revisiting it,” he said.

The Minister was speaking after a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels failed to make progress on the continuing Greek crisis, after the new Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, did not present new proposals on a bailout agreement as had been expected.

Instead, the Greek government is expected to submit a written proposal on a new bailout arrangement to authorities on Wednesday, with the eurogroup of finance ministers expected to hold a conference call shortly afterwards.

Minister Noonan said the issue of a debt write-down was not raised by the Greek government at the meeting of finance ministers.

“But there was a general sense of reprofiling of debt would be acceptable,” Mr Noonan said. “There were no specific demands for haircuts and I know from previous meetings it wouldn’t be acceptable to any of the other countries.”

Debt restructuring

Germany

and Slovakia’s finance ministers were among those who explicitly ruled out a nominal debt write-down for Greece ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. “For my country nominal debt relief is impossible,” Slovak finance minister

Peter Kazimir

said.

Speaking on his way into the meeting, Michael Noonan said that Ireland is in favour of debt restructuring for Greece. He said there were “several options on re-profiling and restructuring debt” that could be explored. “[Debt restructuring] has always been part of the discussion. I have said here on several occasions that the Greek government should follow the example of the approach we took in Ireland and restructure the debt.” He noted that Ireland had extended loan maturities, reduced interest rates, a re-engineering of the Anglo Irish promissory note and refinanced €18. 5 billion of IMF loans with cheaper debt.

He rejected claims Ireland had taken a “hardline approach” to Greece in negotiations. “I’ve been involved in the principle meetings in Greece and have never had a hardline approach. I’ve always said Ireland wants Greece to stay in the eurogroup and we’re prepared to negotiate and we see restructuring of the debt as part of the negotiation. That’s still my position.”

Radical reprofiling

In Dublin, a government spokesman reiterated that the Coalition is in favour of “radical debt reprofiling” for Greece.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting in Dublin, the spokesman said this could include efforts to “stretch out”, “re-engineer” and “restructure” loans.

He also said a “sense of gravity” had entered the situation and said Mr Noonan will work for the “best possible deal” for the Irish taxpayer in his European negotiations.

Asked about statements from Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney earlier this year that Ireland would seek similar treatment to anything offered to Greece, the spokesman said that was not the Government's position.

Speaking earlier, Mr Coveney said, “there is more democracy here than simply in Greece”, adding that countries such as Ireland must be reassured they will get whatever money they contribute to a programme back.

"People talk about austerity like it is a choice. The reason countries like Ireland and Portugal and Italy and Spain have had to reduce spending is . . . because of economic difficulties."