Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Finance in respect of commitments set out in the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the International Monetary Fund, EU Commission and European Central Bank, if he has commenced the weekly reporting requirements; if he will set out any such reports which have been submitted to date and the date on which they were submitted; the form in which the onsite surveillance being carried out by staff of the relevant institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1397/11]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The policy conditionality associated with the EU-IMF Programme for Ireland is set out in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) and in the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality. These documents together with the Technical Memorandum of Understanding which are collectively referred to as the MoU have been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Annex 1 of the MoU sets out the data to be provided to the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF authorities. As regards weekly reporting, this commenced on Friday 7 January. Information was provided in relation to the main Government spending and receipt items and the Government's cash position and this information is being made available on the website of the Department of Finance.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Finance the nature of the programme of external assistance negotiated with the International Monetary Fund; the gross interest charged by the IMF on the drawdown of Special Drawing Rights; the maturity of this lending arrangement; the nature and terms of the interest rate swap, currency swap or other derivate contracts related to the drawdown of SDRs by Ireland, including the margin or other cost charged on these contracts; the net interest, inclusive of associated derivate contracts, being paid by Ireland in respect of its drawdown of SDRs from the IMF; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1366/11]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme of Financial support for Ireland of up to €85 billion, including €17.5 billion from the Government's own resources, involving the IMF, the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM), the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark has been put in place to provide funding for the Exchequer as required to meet its ordinary needs and, if necessary, to provide support for the banking system.

The external assistance being provided is as follows

- €22.5 billion from the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM)

- €22.5 billion from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and bilateral loans from the UK, Sweden and Denmark.

- €22.5 billion from the IMF.

The EU Commission estimated that the average interest rate on the €67.5 billion available to be drawn from the three external sources under the EU – IMF programme would be 5.82 per cent on the basis of market rates at the time of the agreement. The actual cost will depend on the prevailing market rates at the time of each drawdown. The average life of the borrowings, which will involve a combination of longer and shorter dated maturities, under each of these sources will be approximately 7.5 years.

The IMF lending is denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). The SDR comprises a basket of four currencies, Euro, Sterling, the US Dollar and Japanese Yen. The IMF's SDR lending rate is based on the three month floating interest rates for the currencies in the basket. In the presentation of the financial support programme the interest cost on the IMF's floating rate SDR lending was expressed by the EU as the equivalent rate if the funds were fully swapped into fixed rate Euro of 71⁄2 years maturity and was estimated to be 5.7 per cent per annum. This expressed the interest rate in terms which could be compared with the cost of borrowing from the EU sources at the time of the agreement.