Loans to Ireland Act 2010


The Loans to Ireland Act 2010 is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act allows HM Treasury to loan up to £3,250 million to Ireland, as part of an €85 billion European Union bailout package. The final disbursement of the loan was made on 26 September 2013. The final repayment of the loan by Ireland was made, on schedule, on 26 March 2021.

Parliamentary passage

The bill was introduced on 9 December 2010 and passed through all stages in the House of Commons on 15 December. This is unusual, and only ever occurs with short, emergency legislation. As a money bill, it then passed through the House of Lords without detailed consideration in Committee, and passed through the second and third readings on 21 December.

Provisions

The act allows HM Treasury, between 9 December 2010 and 8 December 2015, to make loans to Ireland up to a total of £3.25 billion. It also allows for this limit to be increased by statutory instrument, which would require the approval of the House of Commons.
The act also requires the Treasury to publish a report about the loans as soon as is practicable after 30 March 2011. The report must include details of:
  • any payments made by the Treasury by way of a loan in that period,
  • any sums received by the Treasury in that period by way of repayment of principal or the payment of interest in respect of a loan,
  • the aggregate amount of principal and interest in respect of loans which is outstanding at the end of that period,
  • the remaining term of each loan which is outstanding at the end of that period, and
  • the original term of each loan in respect of which a payment was made by the Treasury by way of a loan in that period.
Once the loans are fully repaid, no report has to be made.

Name for Irish State

The British and Irish governments had a dispute over their respective states' names that lasted about 60 years. It ended with the conclusion of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Both governments now respect each side's name. The act, given its title, is probably the clearest example of this rapprochement in British legislation. If equivalent legislation had been enacted before 1998, it would probably have been called the "Loans to the Republic of Ireland Act" but instead, the Irish side's official name is used throughout.