Written answers
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Department of Finance
National Debt
Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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175. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide information on the creditors of Ireland's national debt. [39311/13]
Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Those persons/entities holding Irish Government debt would be considered Ireland’s main creditors. The most recent estimate of National Debt is for end August 2013, when it stood at €169.75 billion. The largest components of National Debt at end August 2013, as shown in the table below, were Governments bonds and EU/IMF Programme loans. With regard to the ownership of Government bonds, while the Central Bank of Ireland is the registrar for Irish government bonds, the manner in which they are settled and registered does not allow for the identification of individual holders. However, the Central Bank’s Quarterly Bulletins contain limited information on holders of Irish Government bonds, disaggregated between resident and non-resident holders. Furthermore, the ECB announced in February 2013 that it held €14.2 billion of Irish Government bonds at end 2012.
| - | € billion |
|---|---|
| Government Bonds | 114.78 |
| EU/IMF Programme | 61.56 |
| - International Monetary Fund | 21.11 |
| - European Financial Stability Facility* | 14.61 |
| - European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism | 21.70 |
| - United Kingdom Treasury | 3.39 |
| - Kingdom of Denmark | 0.30 |
| - Kingdom of Sweden | 0.45 |
| Other Medium and Long Term Debt | 0.77 |
| State Savings Schemes (excludes POSB Deposits)** | 15.05 |
| Short-Term Debt | 6.58 |
| Cash and other Financial Assets*** | -29.00 |
| National Debt at 30/08/13 | 169.75 |
Notes:
Rounding can affect totals.
The National Debt figures in the table above are unaudited. The figures take account of the effect of currency hedging transactions.
* A prepaid margin of €0.53 billion was deducted from the EFSF loan of €4.19 billion drawn down on 1 February 2011 giving a net liability of €3.66 billion. The total net liability of
€61.56billion included in the National Debt at end August 2013takes account of this reduction
** State Savings Schemes also include moneys invested by depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). These funds are mainly lent to the Exchequer as short-term advances. Taking into account the POSB, total State Savings outstanding were €17.7 billion at end August
*** Of which, Exchequer cash balances and other short-term cash management balances accounted for €24.5 billion at end August 2013.
Source: NTMA.
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