Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 30 November 2023
Public Accounts Committee
Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Finance Accounts 2022
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 1 – Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2022
Chapter 2 – Reporting Ireland’s EU Transactions
Chapter 24 – Performance of the Ireland Apple Escrow Fund
Chapter 25 – Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
9:30 am
Mr. John McCarthy:
I will do. The debt target of 85% of GNI* was introduced by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in 2019. Of course, it was subsequently overtaken then by Covid and all the stuff there. There was an increase in the money amount of debt. What we have seen is the denominator, GNI*, really surprise on the upside. Last year, it was something like 13% in nominal terms. That is what has really driven the ratio down earlier than we would have thought.
It has not really been raised over the past couple of years because Covid took over, but it is below the 85%. It is not on the agenda at the moment to target anything further below that. Our trajectory has continued easing in the debt-to-GDP ratio because we are running budgetary surpluses and because we are forecasting reasonably solid GNI*.
The Deputy is absolutely right. The problem is GDP, which is not a great metric from an Irish perspective. We are below 40%, really, at the moment. Sixty per cent is the European threshold and it does create problems for us.