Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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52. To ask the Minister for Finance the effect the Central Bank of Ireland's holding of the Anglo Irish Bank bonds will have on Ireland's ability to avail of quantitative easing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4104/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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57. To ask the Minister for Finance if the implementation of quantitative easing by the Central Bank of Ireland will be constrained by its current hold of Exchequer debt as a result of the promissory note arrangement; if these bonds will be specifically excluded from the calculation of the maximum level of quantitative easing that can be undertaken by the Central Bank of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4201/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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58. To ask the Minister for Finance the options and process for the Central Bank of Ireland for implementation of quantitative easing at a national level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4202/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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60. To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank of Ireland will need to buy the bonds of other eurozone states in a reciprocal arrangement whereby they would buy Government bonds to maximise the potential of quantitative easing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4204/15]

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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65. To ask the Minister for Finance if Irish Government bonds held by the Central Bank of Ireland as a result of the promissory note will not reduce the volume of Government bonds the Central Bank of Ireland may purchase as part of the newly announced European Central Bank, ECB, quantitative easing programme; if the Government bonds held by the Central Bank of Ireland as part of the promissory note deal no longer need to be sold as previously agreed in view of the changed ECB policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4282/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 52, 57, 58, 60 and 65 together.

At the outset, I want to stress that the formulation of monetary policy in the euro area both its design and implementation is a matter for the Eurosystem, which comprises the European Central Bank (ECB) and the nineteen National Central Banks of the participating Member States.

Under the Treaty, the Eurosystem is independent in the formulation of monetary policy, so I will not comment on the likely composition of asset purchases by the Irish Central Bank.

Price stability in the euro area has been defined as annual inflation of close to but not exceeding 2 per cent (inflation being measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices).  Inflation in the euro area has been below levels consistent with price stability for some time and, in fact, moved into negative territory in December.

With policy rates effectively at zero per cent, the Governing Council of the ECB decided last week to expand its asset purchases to include inter alia sovereign bonds issued by the participating Member States in order to ease monetary and financial conditions further.

From an Irish perspective, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) is clearly part of the Eurosystem and will therefore be involved in implementing the monetary policy that has been decided upon.

The ECB has indicated that its asset purchase programme in relation to sovereign bonds will be restricted to bonds with a remaining maturity of greater than 2 but less than 30 years.  It has also indicated limits on the Eurosystem's holdings of any one issuer's bonds, taking into account existing holdings.  These limits refer to the same 2 to 30 year maturity window.  To be precise, holdings within the 2 to 30 year remaining maturity window will not exceed 33 per cent of an issuer's tradable bonds within the same window.  The majority of the bonds acquired by the CBI in exchange for the Promissory Notes have more than 30 years remaining.  Currently, this is the case for €19 billion out of the original €25 billion nominal issuance. Therefore, the holding of these bonds by the CBI will, in practice, have no impact on the amounts that can be purchased by the CBI.  While other bonds within the 2-30 year maturity window that are already held by the CBI and other National Central Banks will be taken into account for the purposes of calculating the amounts that can be purchased, I understand that this still leaves ample room for participation by the CBI in the asset purchase programme.

I understand that the Bank's disposal strategy for its Special Portfolio - those bonds acquired following the liquidation of IBRC and the exchange of the Promissory Notes remains as previously announced, i.e. it will continue to dispose of the bonds as soon as possible, provided conditions of financial stability permit.  Disposals may or may not impact on the purchasable amounts under the asset purchase programme depending on the maturity of the bonds sold.