THE GOVERNMENT is “absolutely convinced” the International Monetary Fund will remain supportive of a reduction in the cost of Ireland’s bailout under the leadership of Christine Lagarde, Minister of State for Finance Brian Hayes has said.
Ms Lagarde, who stepped down as France’s finance minister yesterday and is due to take the helm at the fund next week, has publicly supported French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s call for Ireland to raise its corporate tax rate in exchange for a reduced interest rate on its bailout loans.
Government sources have long believed the finance ministry under Ms Lagarde was more sympathetic than the Élysée Palace to Ireland’s case, however.
Speaking in Paris yesterday, Mr Hayes praised her and said it was highly significant that someone with “a deep understanding of Ireland” and the euro zone would be running the IMF.
The fund has supported Ireland’s request for an interest rate reduction, and “the Government is absolutely convinced that that position will remain the IMF’s”, Mr Hayes said.
“It’s only fair that Ireland has a reduction in the interest rate. Obviously France stands in opposition to that, and to a lesser extent Germany. We’ve got to work through those issues and deal with the issues so that in some point in the future we get that rate reduction,” he said.
Mr Hayes is in Paris for a series of meetings at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where he will today sign a convention on the exchange of information on tax matters between states.
On the appointment of François Baroin to replace Ms Lagarde at the finance ministry, Mr Hayes said the Government would work hard with all their colleagues, “and particularly the new finance minister here in France”.
“France is a very important partner country in the European Union. We have huge historical and cultural connections with France. Our position on things like the Common Agricultural Policy is very similar to the French position.Whilst we disagree on some issues, more binds us than that which divides us,” he said.
Mr Hayes visited Père Lachaise cemetery yesterday to confirm that the Office of Public Works would provide funding for the restoration of Oscar Wilde’s grave – one of the cemetery’s most visited tombs.
The memorial, a sculpture of a modernist angel designed by Sir Jacob Epstein, is covered with graffiti and parts of the stone have been knocked off. The restoration project will involve cleaning the grave and surrounding it with glass joined by four bronze pillars.
The State was approached about the restoration by the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris and Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson. Sheila Pratschke, the director of the centre, said the project team wanted it to be as simple and as unobtrusive as possible.
“It has been [Mr Holland’s] dream to have it cleaned, restored and respected,” Ms Pratschke said. “I think it will look magnificent when it’s cleaned.” Mr Hayes called the State’s involvement a small but very important gesture.
“We have a responsibility to the great Irish writers, no matter where they are in the world, and we have a responsibility to their memory.”