The Junior Finance Minister is insisting the government is confident a deal can be done on the Anglo promissory note by March 31st.

Brian Hayes says this is the 'date with destiny'.

It follows comments from Finance Minister Michael Noonan yesterday who said the government had budgeted for the payment of the next installment if a deal had not been reached by the deadline.

However he says reasonable progress is being made in talks in Frankfurt.

Mr. Noonan has previously said that such a deal "is likely" by the end of March.

He says talks are on-going but that the government has budgeted for the payment if necessary.

'Some key issues outstanding'

Speaking yesterday evening Minister Noonan said reasonable progress is being made in talks with Frankfurt and he hopes a deal can be reached.

"Well we have included the promissory note payment in the normal budgetary way, because you do budgets on a 'no policy change' basis - and until we do a deal, the policy is the same" he said.

"But we have made reasonable progress with Frankfurt".

"There are some key issues still outstanding, but we would hope that we would resolve them satisfactorily between now and March" he added.

Junior Minister Brian Hayes believes the European Central Bank (ECB) is aware of how important this is.

He spoke with Breakfast here on Newstalk.

Speaking last month, Taoiseach Enda Kenny also echoed sentiment for the March deadline.