Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2009
127 Deputy Joe Costello asked the Minister for Finance if he has made a commitment through G20 to make a contribution as part of an EU emergency package to the International Monetary Fund to finance new loans to countries in financial crisis; the amount promised; the method and timescale for contributing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46803/09]
View answerEU Heads of State and Government agreed, at their informal meeting in September 2009, that they would provide a total of up to €125 billion to the IMF, as the EU contribution to the trebling of the IMF's resources, which was agreed at the G20 summit in London in April 2009 in response to the global financial crisis. Ireland's share of the €125 billion is estimated at about €2 billion which would be made available, in the first instance, through a bilateral loan to the IMF of €1.3 billion which would subsequently be rolled up into Ireland's contribution to the IMF's New Arrangement for Borrowing, known as the NAB. The NAB is a set of credit arrangements between the IMF and a number of member countries for providing supplementary resources when ordinary resources are run down. NAB is, in effect, a backstop credit facility available to the IMF.
Both the bilateral loan and the contribution to NAB involve the extension of a credit facility by the Central Bank to the IMF. The details of the bilateral loan agreement are under discussion with the IMF and will have to be approved by Government and enacted in new primary legislation. Ireland's membership of the NAB will also require Government approval.
