Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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22. To ask the Minister for Finance the projected cost of debt service on the national debt; the interest and repayments for each year from 2015 to 2020; and the projected increases in public spending for each of these years. [17574/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The most recent forecasts of both National Debt interest and General Government interest expenditure for the period 2015 to 2020 are contained in the draft Stability Programme Update (SPU), published on the 28^thof April by my Department. The relevant information is contained in Table A3 in Annex 1 of this publication, which is provided for convenience.

National debt interest is the projected cash interest cost of the National debt. The General Government interest figures are prepared on an ESA10 accrual basis and represent the projected interest cost of the wider General Government measure of debt.

Regarding debt repayments over the period 2015 to 2020, a comprehensive chart was included in the SPU detailing the maturity profile of long-term marketable and official debt as at end March 2015. A summary of the data behind the chart for the period 2015-2020 is shown in the table.

Note that these figures are unaudited and include the effect of currency hedging transactions. Rounding can affect totals.

*Long-term marketable & official debt includes Irish Government Bonds (including Amortising Bonds) and EU/IMF & Bilateral facilities. The figures reflect the EFSF maturity extensions agreed in June 2013. EFSM loans are also subject to a seven year extension. It is not expected that Ireland will have to refinance any of its EFSM loans before 2027. However, the revised maturity dates of individual EFSM loans will only be determined as they approach their original maturity dates. The original EFSM maturities of €5 billion in 2015 and €3.9 billion in 2018 are reflected in the table above.

On the subject of public spending for 2015 to 2020, general government expenditure is forecast to increase from €72.3 billion in 2014 to €73.8 billion over the forecast horizon. More specifically, a forecast for gross voted expenditure for each of the specified years is included in table 10 on page 18 of the SPU. It should be noted that the gross current voted expenditure figures include a provision of €300 million per annum for demographic costs beyond 2016. The relevant figures are shown in the table.