Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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71. To ask the Minister for Finance Ireland’s debt position in 2015; the amount of this that may be attributed to legacy banking debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40614/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The recent Budget 2015 publication projected a general government debt figure of €209.9 billion or 108.5% of GDP at end 2015.

As per my recent response to Parliamentary Question No. 166 on 27 May 2014 (PQ 23246/14), I outlined that no specific tranches of borrowing were undertaken solely for the purpose of recapitalising the banking sector. Therefore, the debt component relating to the recapitalisation of the banks can only be estimated.

The previous parliamentary question provided in detail the type and level of capital injections injected into Irish banks since the start of 2009 and indicated that they can be separated into three categories.

(1) Capital injections that were made under Ministerial direction by the NPRF Commission amount to €18.8 billion (net of the sale of Bank of Ireland preference shares in 2013). There is no debt effect associated with these payments as they did not require borrowing.

(2) The promissory notes to IBRC and EBS added €30.85 billion to the general government debt, but not the national debt, in 2010. The IBRC promissory notes were cancelled and replaced with a portfolio of eight floating rate Government bonds for a total amount of €25 billion which will lead to a reduction in general government debt over time.

(3) By the end of 2013, €10 billion (net of the sale of Bank of Ireland equity in 2011, the sale of Irish Life and the sale of contingent capital notes in 2013) is estimated to have been paid through direct payments from the Exchequer account to the banking sector. Although no specific borrowing was made in the cases of interventions paid through the Exchequer they would have impacted on the cash reserves held by government.

In addition to the recapitalisation payments made to these institutions there have been some developments which have offset these measures. These include the aforementioned sale of Irish Life and the BOI contingent capital notes.

There have also been fees paid to the Minister under the Credit Institutions Financial Support and Eligible Liabilities Guarantee schemes amounting to €4.4 billion from 2008 to 2014.

On the basis of the continued progress in relation to the liquidation of IBRC the overall debt figure has continued to reduce.