Noonan meets European Investment Bank

The two Ministers in the Department of Finance met representatives of the European Investment Bank today, the Dáil has been told.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expediture and Reform Brendan Howlin had discussed flexibility.

Mr Kenny said there was a “blockage’’ in the system for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

“It is a time, not just for an assessment of this challenge, but for imagination and ingenuity in so far as what can be achieved here,’’ said Mr Kenny.

The Taoiseach was replying in the Dáil to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who said there was deep concern about the euro zone crisis.

Now was the time for Europe to take radical and urgent action, he said, adding that the ECB should have the mandate to support growth in all its aspects.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the economic difficulties were a direct conseqence of austerity which the Government and Fianna Fail wanted to include in the fiscal treaty.

Never once, he added, had Mr Kenny asked for a write down of the banking debts.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, on behalf of the Technical Group, said the Government should show where the cuts in public expenditure would be and who would feel the pain.