Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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138. To ask the Minister for Finance the change in the general Government debt from December 2007 to December 2014; how this is broken down between the building up of cash balances, paying for Government goods and services, and recapitalisations of the banks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29733/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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General government debt has increased by approximately €156.2bn from a debt level of €47.1bn in 2007 to €203.3bn as at December 2014.

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

Total cash and other financial asset balances as reported by the NTMA which were included in the composition of debt were €4.5bn in 2007 and €14.8bn in 2014.

The headline deficit for the period was approximately €144.4bn.  This is made up of the excess of day to day expenditure over revenue, slightly over €97bn and the balance relates to one-off transactions, including transfers to the banking sector.

No specific borrowing was undertaken in order to fund the recapitalisation of Irish banks and therefore it is not possible to quantify the precise impact to government debt. However, as mentioned in the 'Spring Economic Statement 2015' over €64bn was used to recapitalise the banks. As some payments to the banking sector were directed investments via the NPRF and did not require borrowing, there were no debt implications associated with these payments. Through the sale of investments in BOI and PTSB and the sale of Irish Life, circa €5.0bn has been returned to the State in addition to €5.9bn in interest and fees across all the banks up to 31 December 2014.  In addition, the significant progress in the liquidation of IBRC, which was classified within the area of general government as a result of ESA 2010, has reduced its effect on general government debt.

It should be noted that in addition to these transactions there are also minor adjustments in the areas of other government bodies, local government, and statistical classification issues.