Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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367. To ask the Minister for Finance the annual amounts spent on servicing the national debt since 2008, including a breakdown of interest and principal; and the projected spend annually from 2015 to 2020. [31632/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The NTMA advise that the annual cash cost of servicing the National Debt for each of the years 2008 to 2014 is as set out in Table 1 as follows. For those years, National Debt service expenditure comprised interest, a Sinking Fund payment as well debt management fees and expenses of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

The Deputy should note that this information is available in a number of published documents including the Annual Reports and Accounts of the NTMA as well as the Department of Finance's Budgetary and Economic Statistics publication.

Table 1: National Debt Service Expenditure 2008-2014

As noted above National Debt service cash expenditure in the years 2008 to 2014 included an annual Sinking Fund paymenta technical charge on the Exchequer current account and credit to the capital account which had no impact on the overall Exchequer balance. The requirement to make an annual Sinking Fund payment was removed in the Finance Act 2014 and so no such payment is provided for in the National Debt Service expenditure projections for the years 2015 to 2020. This should be borne in mind when making year-on-year National Debt service expenditure comparisons.

The most recent forecasts of annual National Debt service cash expenditure for the period 2015 to 2020 are from the time of the April 2015 Stability Programme Update (SPU) and are set out in Table 2 as follows.

Table 2: National Debt Service Expenditure Projections 2015-2020

While principal debt repayments do not form part of National Debt service expenditure, Table 3 below sets out information in respect of the principal redemption amounts of Irish Government Fixed Rate Bonds on the date of maturity over the period 2008 to 2015. Government Bonds are the largest component of the National Debt.

Table 3: Irish Government Fixed Rate Bond Redemptions 2008 - 2015

Table 4 as follows sets out the maturity profile of Irish Government Fixed Rate Bonds outstanding at the end of August 2015 for the period 2016 to 2020.

Table 4: Maturity profile of Irish Government Fixed Rate Bonds 2016-2012

Note that the figures in the table are unaudited.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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368. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide as much information as is available on the sources-creditors-holders of the national debt, including the nationality of the holders of Government bonds and other forms of debt and whether the debt is owed to public-private institutions.. [31633/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The table below sets out that Gross National Debt stood at €201.25 billion at end-August 2015, the largest components being Government bonds and loans under the EU/IMF Programme. Together, these categories of debt accounted for €173.55 billion or 86% of Gross National Debt.

A further €16.62 billion or 8% of the Gross National Debt was in the form of State Savings products such as Savings Certificates, Savings Bonds, National Solidarity Bonds and Prize Bonds.

With regard to the ownership of Government bonds, while the Central Bank of Ireland is the registrar for Irish Government bonds, the manner in which they are settled and registered does not allow for the identification of individual holders. However, the Central Bank publishes some information on holders of Irish Government bonds, disaggregated between resident and non-resident holders. The most recent estimates suggest that non-resident investors held 59 per cent (or €73.3 billion) of long-term Irish Government bonds in July 2015. Irish-resident credit institutions accounted for 93 per cent (or €47.4 billion) of all resident holdings.

Furthermore, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced in February 2015 that it held €9.7 billion nominal of Irish Government bonds under its Securities Markets Programme (SMP) at end-2014.

Ireland's creditors under the EU/IMF Programme are listed in the table below.

Notes:

Source: NTMA

Rounding can affect totals. 

Figures are unaudited and take account of the effect of currency hedging transactions.

*A prepaid margin of €0.53 billion was deducted from the EFSF loan of €4.19 billion drawn down on 1 February 2011 giving a net liability of €3.66 billion. The total net liability of €17.88 billion included in the National Debt at end August 2015 takes account of this reduction.

**State Savings Schemes also include moneys invested by depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). These funds are mainly lent to the Exchequer as short-term advances and through the purchase of Irish Government Bonds. Taking into account the POSB, total State Savings outstanding were €19.3 billion at end August 2015.

***Of which, Exchequer cash balances and other short-term investments accounted for €14.4 billion at end August 2015.