Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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241. To ask the Minister for Finance the total contribution of Greece to the European Union loans Ireland has availed of. [6135/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Ireland's programme funding did not include any element of bilateral or guaranteed loans from Greece.

Ireland's three-year €85 billion EU/IMF financial support programme was comprised of €67.5 billlion in external support, and €17.5 billion from its own own resources.

The external support under the programme was provided by a number of lenders:

- €22.5 billion from the IMF Extended Fund Facility;

- €22.5 billion from the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM);

- €17.7 billion from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF); and

- €4.8 billion in the form of bilateral loans from the United Kingdom (€3.8bn), Sweden (€0.6bn) and Denmark (€0.4bn).

All programme funding was drawn down.

Of these, the EFSM and EFSF are EU and Euro-area instruments respectively.

The EFSM is an EU 28 facility established under Council Regulation 407/2010 of 11 May 2010. It is a funding facility amounting to €60 billion which is guaranteed by the EU budget. There is therefore no individual Member State guarantee.

The EFSF was incorporated on 7 June 2010 for the purpose of providing stability support to Euro Area Member States in the form of guaranteed loans of up to €440 billion within a limited period of time. It includes a provision that countries in receipt of support may step out as guarantors.

The EFSF has provided programme assistance to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The assistance was financed by the EFSF through the issuance of bonds and other debt instruments on capital markets.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus stepped out as EFSF guarantors when they entered their own programmes. On that basis, Greece is not one of the guarantors of Ireland's EFSF loans.