Michael Noonan today begins a two-day tour of Europe - trying to win support for a plan to replace Ireland's Troika loans.
Minister Noonan wants to repay Ireland's IMF loans early - by taking out new loans with lower interest rates.
Ireland's currently paying interest rates of almost 5 per cent on its loans from the IMF as part of the Troika deal.
But if Ireland was taking the same loans today, the money markets would charge a far lower rate - of just 1-and-a-half percent.
So Michael Noonan wants to go to the markets and take out cheaper loans, so that he can use the money to repay the IMF ahead of schedule.
But the rules of the bailout are that Ireland has to repay all the Troika loans at the same rate - and we'll need European approval to repay the IMF loans early.
Today the Minister meets the European Commission, but the key test will come tomorrow when he meets with the ECB president Mario Draghi.
He still has concerns about how Ireland handled its deal to scrap the promissory notes - and he could now demand extra measures from Ireland in exchange for a deal on the IMF loans.
