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A EUROZONE BAILOUT fund has formally agreed to extend the maturities on a portion of Ireland’s bailout loans giving the State an extra seven years to repay money owed.
The EFSF’s board of directors today agreed to extend the time allowed to repay loans from its facility – which is funded by the 17 states who use the euro – for both Ireland and Portugal by up to seven years.
Ireland has currently drawn down €13.5 billion in loans from the EFSF, with an average maturity of 11.9 years. This will now be extended to nearly 19 years with the State getting until 2023 to start repaying the loans.
In total Ireland will get €17.7 billion from the EFSF as part of its €85 billion bailout programme. For Portugal the EFSF has committed €26 billion, a third of its €78 billion programme.
Last week both countries got formal approval from the 27-member European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) to extend loans from there – amounting to €21.7 billion in the case of Ireland – by seven years.
Finance Ministers formally agreed to extend the repayment date of Ireland and Portugal’s loans back in March and but the measure was only formally approved at meetings held in Luxembourg last week.
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Ah ffs Why are so many of the comments on here turning negative on every single story. This will bring us into the next generation of data speeds country wide. and too boot it gives the government cash, as previously mentioned could be used to fund a new national children’s hospital.
if people don’t start to think and act more positively we’ll never get out of this hole we’re in.
People are immensely angry Bilbo at the way the government have let us down. Indeed this and he lower cost of borrowing are good news stories but without getting out to protest, people need to vent somewhere. Better here than hurling rocks at policemen though.
but they haven’t let is down…
You’re right,but there’s no way on this earth they’ll spend it on a hospital or schools,hate to say it,but a lot of it will be wasted on advisers and pr projects plus consultons fee’s and by the time they go to do anything with it,there’ll be nought left
Fantastic! That’ll should pay for the new National Children’s Hospital… When can we expect the networks to launch the rollout of 4G?
I didn’t realise mobile carriers were responsible for building children’s hospitals! Is that why there’s been such confusion over sites?
Excellent news.
They should use these funds to roll out high speed broadband around the country. It would be an investment in the country’s infrastructure that will pay off.
A good day for the bondholders indeed.
Yields are down on Irish debt AND we’ve just raised enough money to pay the next coupon!
Trade of the century for those who bought up the bonds when there seemed a chance the banks might default.
Resulting in many of Ireland’s poorer having to buy new equipment in order to watch TV. The better-off already had the most up-to-date equipment.
I’m sure they said the same thing when they started building roads and motorways.
Progress comes at a price. But it’s worth every penny.
What story were you reading??
The story I read was that the 800mhz only became available by the closure of the analogue TV signal.
Yeah, because an obsolete system was replaced with a more efficient, higher quality, higher capacity that offers more channels for less money and power. Ireland’s digital television system is one of the best in Europe. To continue to service and replace the old analogue system would have cost too much money resulting in an unreliable service. In order to receive this system people were expected to spend on average of about 50euro. The existing antenna systems are sufficient as its broadcast on the existing UHF band as the analogue. For this 50euro you have HD pictures and extra channels all in high quality. Now in saying all of this, were legally obliged by the EU to shut off our analogue TV services by 2012 so it was not a choice really. Can you tell me this, in the 70′s when the rest of the world were moving to colour TV, should we have stayed B&W?
bigger bills for us on the way so
Why?
higher speeds more like… 4g here we come…
Yeh the milk is running dry on the 3G cashcow. Bring in the 4G fattened calf and hike the prices and round up on the way.
Penetrate walls, sounds healthy for the body that …
Maybe the operators should sort out the current problems of dropping coverage.
You listening Vodafone?
How am I supposed to update my status on the motorway when I’ve no coverage!!
Who will ultimately pay this €855 million fee? the punters will!
this is just another form of indirect taxation.
To all the techies who are SO excited about the POSSIBLE download speeds,
get over yourselves its mobile internet its not a cure for cancer??
Ridiculous. 400m + is being forked over to the exchequer this month courtesy of telecoms announced today. They’re investing those astonishing amount of money in order to increase their customer bases by providing a higher level of customer service. Thus becoming more profitable and furthering their stability in Ireland (jobs, heavier investments, better services for our country). If you don’t want the service, don’t get it and get back under that bridge.
How do you increase your customer base in a market that is no longer growing?
prices will go up that’s for certain!
Money raised from sale has gone straight to the Troika as agreed,
How much did the change over cost? And if its less than what is going to be given what will be done with the difference?
have your say