The Finance Minister will chair a meeting of his EU counterparts in Luxembourg today in a bid to get final agreement on a mechanism to wind down failing banks. Michael Noonan says he expects the talks to be wide-ranging and go long into the night.

Last night Finance Ministers agreed broad guidelines on how to use the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to rescue banks from failure.

The fund will be able to shore up struggling banks directly and possibly retrospectively which would be of benefit to Ireland.

Minister Noonan welcomed that decision and said they had agreed that the framework under which the ESM will operate and will have the potential of directly recapitalising banks on a case-by-case basis. The move could see the Irish people claw back €25 billion which was put into AIB and Bank of Ireland.

However Minister Noonan warned that it still will take a long time before the whole system will become operational.

The new plans will allow countries to make individual requests on behalf of a single bank and applications will then be dealt with on an case-by-case basis.

Speaking this morning in Luxembourg, Minister Noonan said talks today will be wide-ranging.