Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

80. To ask the Minister for Finance the change in the general Government debt from December 2007 to December 2014; the way this is broken down between the building up of cash balances, paying for Government goods and services, and recapitalisation of the banks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6533/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The increase in general government debt for the period December 2007 to December 2014 is projected to be €156 billion. The first official return for end 2014 will be made by the CSO in the Maastricht Returns at the end of March this year. 

The Deputy should note that borrowing is not undertaken for any specific purposes but rather as the requirements for cash-flow occur.

Accumulated exchequer cash and other short-term investment balances which were included in this composition of debt figure have increased by circa €7 billion.

The headline general government deficit for the period is circa €142 billion. Of this, the cumulative underlying general government deficit, i.e. the excess of day to day expenditure over revenue, is €96 billion. The balance of the deficit relates to one-off transactions, including capital injections to the financial sector.

A futher amount of approximately €6 billion was paid into the banking sector in equity injections, which are classified as financial transactions rather than general government expenditure and, as a result, did not have any impact on the deficit figures. Other capital injections that were made include those under Ministerial direction by the NPRF Commission and did not require borrowing, hence there was not any debt effect associated with these payments.