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

Prior to the recent elections in Greece, I was asked my view on the need for a European debt conference, given the high level of public debt in Greece. My position was and remains that the best method of addressing the issue is through multilateral discussions, rather than unilateral action. Specifically, in the case of euro area member states, all programme negotiations have been conducted within the Eurogroup and ECOFIN, with IMF involvement as appropriate. My view is that these are the appropriate fora in which to resolve outstanding issues.

The Deputy also questions the high level of public debt in Ireland. While our debt-to-GDP ratio is undoubtedly high, Ireland is in a very different position to Greece when it comes to debt. For a start, our debt ratio has peaked and is now on a firm downward trend. In fact, our net debt amounted to an estimated 91% of GDP at the end of last year. The Government has been very proactive in ensuring the affordability of our debt remains low. For instance, we replaced €9 billion of IMF debt last year with cheaper market debt and the intention is to refinance another €9 billion in the first half of this year. These early repayment transactions alone will deliver a saving of over €1.5 billion over the lifetime of the loans. We also restructured the promissory note, reducing the State's borrowing requirement by €20 billion in the next decade or so. We have succeeded in gaining concessions from our European partners in the form of maturity extensions and lower interest rates. The maturity extension removes a market refinancing requirement of €20 billion for the period 2015-22 and the interest rate reduction delivers savings each year in the annual budget. We have also put the public finances on a more sustainable path. We are on track to correct the excessive deficit this year.

In summary, we have the strongest economic growth in Europe, robust employment growth, a more sustainable deficit and a falling debt ratio. These are the main reasons we can now borrow at record low levels.

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