Finance Minister MichaelNoonan said that inflation over the coming decades would make the replacement debts much more manageable once they come up for repayment.
"This overhaul of EU banking rules will make sure that banks in the future have enough capital, both in terms of quality and quantity, to withstand shocks, " said Irish Finance Minister MichaelNoonan, who led the negotiations.
Agreement over the tax had already been reached before the meeting, and the nod from a majority of the Ecofin group of EU finance ministers - a requirement of the enhanced co-operation procedure - was merely a procedural matter, according to the Irish Finance Minister MichaelNoonan.