Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on recent increases in the cost of raising sovereign debt; the extent to which he attributes this increased funding cost to the deteriorating Exchequer position; the extent to which he attributes it to the contingent liabilities arising from the bank guarantee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12306/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Treasury Management Agency have advised me that the main reasons for the increase in the forecast cost of servicing the national debt for 2009 are the increase in the estimate for the 2009 Exchequer Borrowing Requirement and the higher interest rates currently prevailing on Government bonds. The current elevated yields on Irish Government bonds reflect both global factors which are affecting all euro sovereign borrowers benchmarked to the German bond, and national specific factors, which would include the state of the public finances and the bank guarantee. I understand that it is impossible to quantify the specific impact that each of these diverse individual factors have on the borrowing cost. The NTMA note that the cost of borrowing for Ireland has fallen recently from the levels recorded earlier in the year.