Written answers

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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121. To ask the Minister for Finance the gross fixed capital formation for investment in aircraft for leasing and intangibles; for core investment excluding investment in aircraft for leasing and intangibles; for public investment at market prices; the level of gross fixed capital formation in total as a percentage of gross domestic product, GDP; the level of gross fixed capital formation excluding investment in aircraft for leasing and intangibles expressed as a percentage of GDP; the debt to GDP ratio; the effect of the exclusion from GDP of investment in aircraft for leasing and intangibles on the debt to GDP ratio, for each quarter in the years 2011 to 2015, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11780/16]

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The following table sets out the requested publicly available data, as published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), on an annual basis, at current market prices.

20112012201320142015
Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) (€m)29,92133,45031,67736,51147,249
- of which
Intangible Investment (€m)9,66511,7949,5859,78620,442
GDP (€m)173,940174,845179,448189,046214,623
GFCF (% of GDP)17.219.117.719.322.0
General Government (GG) Gross Debt (€m)189,707209,986215,298203,295201,266
GG Gross Debt (% of GDP)109.1120.1120.0107.593.8
Other transport equipment (SITC79: mainly aircraft) (€m)(1)6,0957,6154,9376,2554,762
General Government Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GG GFCF)(€m)(2)4,1383,5663,3024,0023,903
Source: CSO National Income and Expenditure 2014; Quarterly National Accounts for 2015.

Notes: (1) CSO Goods Exports and Imports. Does not correspond exactly to aircraft investment for GFCF purposes.

(2) CSO Government Finance Statistics April 2016.

The CSO publishes annual but not quarterly data on aircraft and intangible investment.  Similarly, the CSO does not publish any disaggregation of aircraft investment by sector, whether for leasing or any other purpose. Also, the CSO does not publish data on core investment i.e. excluding investment in aircraft for leasing and intangibles.

Aircraft investment, as presented in the annual national accounts, at current market prices, by the CSO is entirely GDP neutral i.e. for every one unit increase in investment there is a corresponding increase in imports. The exclusion of aircraft investment would therefore have no impact on the debt-to-GDP ratio. The majority of intangible investment is also imported. In fact, the substantial increase in intangible investment in 2015 was mainly attributable to the bringing onshore of intellectual property assets which were imported throughout the year. However, as the CSO does not publish data on the exact import content of intangible investment it is not possible to provide a precise estimate of the impact of excluding intangible investment on the debt-to-GDP ratio.

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