Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if, following the deal provided to Greece by the European Central Bank, wherein ECB profits on Greek bond holdings from the Securities Market Programme and previously the National Central bank investment portfolio will be returned to Greece, he will be seeking a similar arrangement for Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1768/13]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Finance the analysis if any that has taken place within his Department, the National Treasury Management Agency or Central Bank of Ireland on the savings that Ireland could make on its outstanding sovereign debt if it was to retire the holdings of the European Central Bank at the price at which they acquired it in the secondary market meaning the ECB would forego future coupon and capital gains; if no analysis has taken place if he will direct his staff and agencies under his control to engage in such an exercise; his views on whether it is appropriate for the ECB to distribute profits made on its holdings of Irish sovereign debt to other Eurozone Central Banks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1769/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 36 and 50 together.

The recently agreed package of measures for Greece is designed to help put its economy on a path to sustainable growth and its domestic finances on a sound footing. This package was agreed in the context of the statement by Euro Area Heads of State or Government that the scale of the Greek problem is so large that it requires special attention.

In this regard, on November 26th euro zone finance ministers agreed to partly reschedule Greece's debt, and offer several other measures to alleviate the country’s financial burden. Taken together, these actions are expected to cut Greece's debt by up to 20 percentage points of GDP by 2020. This will bring its debt to GDP level to 124% in 2020, and a debt to GDP level of below 110% is targeted for 2022.

The measures agreed include:

- a debt buyback of bonds held by private investors;

- a reduction of 100 basis points (bp) in the interest rate on the Greek loan facility. Other program countries, such as Ireland, are not required to participate while they are in programs;

- the guarantee commitment fee on EFSF loans, amounting to 10 basis points per annum, is to be cancelled;

- maturities will be extended to 30 years, an increase of 15 years;

- interest payments on EFSF loans will be deferred for 10 years; and,

- the SMP measure: Member States will pass on to Greece's segregated account, an amount equivalent to the income on the Securities Market Programme (SMP) portfolio accruing to their national central bank as from budget year 2013. Again Member States under a full financial assistance programme are not required to participate in this scheme for the period in which they receive financial assistance.

The last of these, the SMP measure, involves a transfer of an accounting profit, but does not involve any retirement of debt by Greece.

It is important to note that the concessions that have been agreed are specific to Greece and are accompanied by significant additional conditionality. In Ireland on the other hand we have entered the final year of our programme. As such our focus is on making a successful exit from the programme.

Ireland is meeting its programme targets, our economy is growing, unemployment is stabilising, yields on our government bonds have fallen considerably, confidence is returning and we have successfully re-entered the international financial markets.

In line with the EU Heads of State or Government commitments in June, discussions are also underway to further improve the sustainability Ireland’s programme. These discussions include our continuing interaction with the EU, the ECB and the IMF (the Troika) on exiting the programme and issues related to our banking debt, including the restructuring of the promissory note.

Ireland’s needs, as a country exiting a programme, are very different to those of Greece. We are however examining the Greek package to see if aspects of it offer any possible benefit to Ireland, particularly in the context of our programme exit.

My officials, along with those of the NTMA and the Central Bank, are continuing to work to improve our success in terms of sustainable market financing. In this context the overall burden and the cost of servicing the outstanding stock of debt is closely monitored, particularly so by the National Treasury Management Agency, and they regularly advise me on this matter.