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.

More: Ireland gets another seven years to repay its European bailout loans