Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The debt is just north of €203 billion. Approximately €40 billion of that figure is bank debt and, when one takes all the swings and roundabouts into account, the cost of that portion is a shade less than €1 billion. The gross cost is €1.6 billion but 80% of the coupon we pay on the Irish paper held by the Central Bank comes back the following year as excess profits from the bank. One of the big fallacies in the public debate on the Irish debt situation is that we are paying back other people's debts and that it was all the banks. We were driven to our debt position of more than €200 billion by accumulated deficits over the years. It was all our own work. The bank debt is significant but it is the minority portion of the debt and because of the various deals we have done, if the €8 billion paid out in interest annually was netted out, the banking call is approximately €1 billion.