TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore has said he is still confident Ireland can obtain a cut in the interest rate on its EU-IMF loans.
Mr Gilmore was speaking following a meeting with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, during which he discussed Ireland’s economic crisis and a joint US-Ireland initiative to improve nutrition in developing countries.
“I think we have to get that reduction in the interest rate because it’s not fair or sustainable that the country that is making the effort, that is meeting the targets of the EU-IMF programme, is the country for whom the interest rate decrease is being withheld. That is not a sustainable position, and the Government is going to continue to work to get that interest rate down.
“I think we would all like to see it happen as soon as possible, but it is something that requires persuasion . . . One of the things about renegotiating the terms of an agreement is that you have to be patient. We have been patient and we have been persuasive, and we are continuing to do that.”
Mr Gilmore said he had briefed Mrs Clinton on the State’s economic progress, but said he had not asked her about reports that US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner had, in the run-up to the bailout deal, vetoed plans that would have allowed Ireland apply a significant discount on €30 billion of unguaranteed bonds.
In a recent Irish Times column, Prof Morgan Kelly made the claim that Mr Geithner had “torpedoed” the plans.
Mr Gilmore said that, to his knowledge, Irish officials have never raised the matter with their US counterparts. “I think there’s a lot of media speculation about [the claim],” he added.
When it was put to the Tánaiste that the onus was on the Government to establish the truth of the matter, he replied: “It’s not something we have been discussing.”
Mr Gilmore said his three-day trip to Tanzania, during which he visited health, education and agriculture projects funded by Irish Aid, had reinforced his conviction that the Government needed to maintain its commitment to the UN target of allocating 0.7 per cent of national income to overseas aid by 2015.
“I appreciate that we are in difficult financial circumstances . . . but we must maintain our commitment to the world’s poor. In addition to that, I think we also have to ensure that the money spent on aid is spent to best effect and that is why this initiative today is about getting best value, best effect, and best results for the commitment we are making. It’s about refocusing the aid effort, particularly in the area of hunger."