Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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General government debt is a measure of the total gross consolidated debt of the State and is the measure used for comparative purposes throughout the European Union. As such, this response focuses primarily on general government debt. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), general government debt at end-2010 and end-2013 stood at €144.2 billion and €215.6 billion respectively.  Budget 2015 projected end-2014 general government debt at €203.2 billion.

	2010	2013	2014f
General Government Debt (€bn)	144.2	215.6	203.2
General Government Debt (% GDP)	87.4	123.3	110.5

Source: CSO, Department of Finance (all data presented under ESA 2010 methodology).

The primary reason for the increase in debt over the period is the borrowing undertaken to fund the Exchequer deficit.  The cumulative deficit for the period 2011 to 2014 is approximately €59.2bn, taking account of the forecast Exchequer deficit of €7.9bn for this year.

The Deputy should note that the drop in the nominal debt between the end of 2013 and the end-2014 forecast relates to changes required by the introduction of ESA 2010 (European System of Accounts) in 2014.  Under ESA 2010, IBRC was reclassified as being within general government as of July 2011 and its debt was consolidated into general government debt.  The end-2013 figure reflects these amounts.  However, the successful liquidation of IBRC has meant that the relevant debt has been reduced.  An estimated €1 billion of the forecast end-2014 general government debt does relate to IBRC but this is expected to be largely resolved in 2015.