merrion street

The first EU-IMF Post Programme Surveillance/Monitoring review mission which took place this week has now successfully concluded, with the EU and IMF issuing positive statements on the review.

Commenting on the review mission, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin stated:

Successfully exiting the EU-IMF programme last year was a key milestone on Ireland’s road to recovery. As we made very clear at the time, exiting the programme was not the end in itself and this Government remains fully committed to stabilising the public finances to ensure delivery of the highest quality of public services, growing the economy and most importantly, getting people back to work.

The Medium Term Economic Strategy published in the days following the exit set out our strategy to deliver on these objectives and outlined a number of key challenges that we must overcome. It was clear to our officials throughout the mission and evident from the statements issued by the EU-IMF today that they support our objective to tackle unemployment, address the legacy banking issues, drive lending to the real economy, ensure debt sustainability and continue to take measures to control expenditure pressures.

The conclusion of this review will further reassure investors that Ireland’s economic recovery is strengthening.