ECB agrees deal to ease Ireland's debt burden

The European Central Bank has agreed a deal which allows Ireland to liquidate Anglo Irish Bank and repay the debt over a longer period of time to ease the burden on the country's taxpayer.

The arrangement, signed off by ECB chiefs at their meeting in Frankfurt, will cancel a debt repayment instalment of €3.1bn (£2.6bn) due next month and every March for the next 10 years, equivalent to about 2pc of the country's GDP.

Anglo Irish Bank, now known as IBRC, will be liquidated under the plan and its outstanding debt will be converted into a new long-term bond intended to spread the repayment over a longer period of time cutting the cost to the state.

Ireland will pay an annual interest rate of 3pc under the new deal.

Mr Kenny said failure to secure a deal on the Anglo debt would have meant repayments totalling €48bn (£41.5bn) over the lifetime of promissory notes.

"Step by step, this Government is undoing the disastrous banking policies that brought this State to the brink of national bankruptcy," he said.

read more at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9855546/ECB-agrees-deal-to-ease-Irelands-debt-burden.html