Noonan: Government has budgeted for Anglo promissory note payment
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said that the Government has budgeted for the next Anglo promissory note instalment, if a deal with Europe cannot been reached.
Minister Noonan has previously said that such a deal is "likely" by the end of March.
Speaking yesterday evening, he said that talks are ongoing, but the Government has budgeted for the payment of the promissory note in Budget 2013 if necessary.
However, Minister Noonan says reasonable progress is being made in talks with Frankfurt and he hopes a deal can be reached before the end of March.
"We have included the promissory note payment in the normal budgetary way, because you do budgets on a no-policy-change basis," he said.
"Until we get a deal, the policy is the same.
"But we have made reasonable progress with Frankfurt. There are some key issues still outstanding, but we would hope that we would resolve them satisfactorily between now and March."
