Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has suggested the Government might not immediately apply for retrospective bank aid from Europe’s bailout fund when it adopts procedures in November to provide such aid.

Saying circumstances had changed appreciably since EU leaders first pledged to examine Ireland’s claim for bank debt relief almost two years ago, Mr Noonan said the Government would have to take advice as to best time to submit a formal application to the European Stability Mechanism fund.

While he expected the ESM to put in place a procedure in November, Mr Noonan said an immediate application was not inevitable.

“In negotiations like this, it’s sometimes better to line up the diplomatic support before we make a hard application but our intention is to apply, and if it’s not in November, there will be an application. There’s always a whether about the timing and we’ll take advice on that and that’s the position we’re in.”

Mr Noonan was answering questions at the Oireachtas finance committee, at which he rejected claims by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty that the Government might not make an application at all. The Government’s basic policy was still grounded in the commitment made by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels in June 2012, he said.

At the same meeting, Labour TD Kevin Humphreys said visiting German MPs suggested yesterday that the Government hire a PR firm in Germany to convince people there of the need for further bank aid for Ireland.

Although the resistance of Germany and allies such as the Netherlands and Finland to retrospective bank recapitalisation was well-recognised, Mr Noonan said the improvement in Irish borrowing costs would be taken taken into account by other crisis-struck countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece.

“It’s very hard to convince ministers from countries like that, that Ireland needs an additional assistance to make the debt sustainable when the markets have decided that we are in a more sustainable position than they are themselves,” Mr Noonan said.

He noted Bank of Ireland had repaid to the Government €1 billion more than the taxpayer committed to the bank and said this was on top of the State’s 14 per cent stake in the bank. “It doesn’t make any great sense to give away some of the shares in the Bank of Ireland.”

He added that a value of some €11 billion now attached to Allied Irish Banks, wholly owned by the State. The State commitment to that bank was “slightly less” than €20 billion at the time of its rescue.