Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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192. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide the receipts for each year from 2011 to 2014 and to date in 2015, and the estimate for 2015, from the sale of State assets; the manner in which these funds have been deployed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18236/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Under EUROSTAT rules, the amount of any dividends received from a State company, including proceeds from asset disposals, which can improve the general government balance, GGB, is limited by reference to the income of the relevant company in the previous year.  In order to comply with the fiscal rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, the scope for the Government to use such dividends for additional expenditure on a GGB neutral basis is limited to the amount by which the dividends paid actually improved the GGB. That sounds complicated but I think the Deputy understands the point. In order to take maximum advantage of the asset disposal proceeds, they cannot all be availed of at once but must be remitted to the Exchequer over a number of years.

The State assets disposal programme announced by the Government in February 2012 has resulted in the following receipts for the Exchequer to date. In 2014, €347 million in special dividends was in 2014, comprising €197 million from ESB and €150 million from Ervia, formerly BGE.  In Jan 2015, a further €203 million was received from ESB, representing the remainder of the €400 million that had been requested from ESB as its contribution to the State assets disposals programme. A further €100 million is expected to be received from Ervia in mid-2015. The balance of the approximately €1 billion total net receipts expected as a result of the BGE sale is expected to be received between now and 2017, as required by the Government and in a prudent manner that protects Ervia's investment grade credit rating.

It has been the Government's consistent position that funds released from asset disposals should be used, as far as possible, to support the economy and job creation, while also using some of the proceeds to reduce debt. Since the State asset disposal programme was agreed by the Government, I have made a number of announcements including allocations of additional funding for capital investment to be funded from proceeds of asset disposals. Details of these investment programmes are on my Department's website, and further details about individual projects and programmes are available from the relevant Ministers and their Departments.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Am I correct to say that there were no receipts in 2012 and 2013? The Minister outlined the figures for 2014 and 2015. The revenue from ESB came from the sale of some of its power plants located abroad. They were proceeds in lieu of sale. Some of the dividends from Ervia came through in 2014 and an additional €100 million came through this year. The Minister indicated that the balance of the sale of Bord Gáis can only come through in stages in 2016 and 2017. If Ervia is profitable between now and 2017, EUROSTAT rules still will not allow it to remit dividends to the State. Where is the money being held? Is it held on Ervia's balance sheet as a contingent liability to be passed to the State in due course? There is no possibility of any further receipts by way of dividends or sale of State assets from Bord Gáis between now and 2017.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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No, we will get the full amount we have listed, but the Deputy asked me a specific question regarding where the money is now - like a Father Ted question "Is it lodging in your account?"

Pending payments of further dividends to the State, Ervia has used part of the remaining proceeds to reduce its debt balances and to restructure its current debt facilities, resulting in cheaper finance being available to Ervia itself. However, as I said, this does not affect the final amount the State will receive arising from the sale of BGE. The Government expects to receive the full €1 billion in special dividends over the timeline I have indicated, between now and 2017.