Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 80: To ask the Minister for Finance the full extent of national debt including the liability taken on by the State in the context of banking guarantees and or other supports in each of the past eight years to date in 2011; the extent to which this situation is expected to improve in the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27888/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is provided in the table below, which has been compiled by the National Treasury Management Agency. National Debt 2004-2011 (End-August):

The purpose of Government borrowing is to meet the overall gap between total expenditure and total revenue and, as such, borrowing does not relate specifically to any expenditure item.

The sharp contraction in economic activity since 2007, three years of large budget deficits and the significant level of State support required for the banking sector have combined to drive up Ireland's national debt level. This rapid rise in the debt levels, which is evident in the figures above, underlines the importance of reducing the deficit and restoring order to the public finances. It is expected that national debt will continue to rise in the coming years, albeit at a reducing rate, as we will have to continue to borrow to fund the gap between expenditure and revenue.

Although much of the borrowings of the six covered institutions are being supported through the various bank guarantees, the debts of these institutions are not included in the calculation of the National Debt. It should be borne in mind that the fees paid over to the Exchequer from the Bank Guarantee Schemes, which totalled €1,333 million and 2010 and €972 million in the period to end-September 2011 reduces the national debt level in those years.

In terms of the impact on the national debt resulting from the State support to the banking sector, the Exchequer funded, in 2009, a €4 billion capital injection into Anglo Irish Bank.

In 2010, the Exchequer funded a €625 million payment to EBS and a €100 million payment to INBS by way of special investment shares, which gave the State extensive powers and full economic ownership of the two building societies.

Injections into the banks funded from the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), such as into Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland in 2009 and Allied Irish Banks again in 2010 do not directly affect the national debt. However, in 2009 there was a frontloading of the 1% of GNP Exchequer contribution to the NPRF for 2009 and 2010 to assist in the recapitalisations of those institutions. The total Exchequer payment to the NPRF in 2009 was €3 billion and this increased the Exchequer deficit in that year.

The Deputy should be aware that while the €30.85 billion in Promissory Notes committed to Anglo Irish Bank, INBS and EBS in 2010 were added in full to the stock of General Government debt in that year, the annual payments affect the national debt on a phased basis only, beginning in 2011. The first of those payments, totalling €3,085 million, were funded through the Exchequer in the first half of 2011, thereby adding to the Exchequer deficit at that point.

The Exchequer has also funded €7,568 million in banking recapitalisation related payments this year and has, to end-September 2011, received €233 million in revenues from the sale of part of the State's shareholding in Bank of Ireland. These receipts help to reduce the national debt level in 2011.