Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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142. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 230 of 16 December 2014 if he will address the issue of the gains made by the European Central Bank on the holdings of Irish Government bonds; his views on if a case exists for the profit on these holdings to be re-paid to the Irish State on maturity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49633/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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On November 26^th2012 a package of measures for Greece was agreed by euro zone finance ministers. This package is designed to help put the Greek 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. 

One of the measures agreed in November 2012, the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) measure, asks Member States to pass on, to Greece's segregated account, an amount equivalent to the income on the SMP portfolio accruing to their national central bank as from budget year 2013.  Member States under a full financial assistance programme, such as Ireland at that time, are not required to participate in this scheme for the period in which they receive financial assistance.

It is important to note that the agreed concessions are specific to Greece and were accompanied by significant additional conditionality, and must be seen in the context of the very significant debt restructuring that has taken place under the Greek programme.

Section 2 of the Central Bank Act 2014 (No. 9 of 2014) provides for Ireland's payments under this measure.

Ireland's needs, as a country that has successfully exited a programme, are very different to those of Greece.  We have now returned to the international capital markets and our bond yields have fallen to historically low levels. We continue to seek ways to further reduce the interest burden, as demonstrated by our recent early repayment of some €9 billion to the IMF. However,  I do not see the SMP measure agreed for Greece as appropriate in our case.