Written answers

Monday, 11 September 2017

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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197. To ask the Minister for Finance the schedule of amounts, maturity dates and interest rates on Ireland's outstanding debt; the highest rates of interest applied to Irish borrowings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38609/17]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Debt is the net debt incurred by the Exchequer after taking account of cash balances and other financial assets. Gross National Debt is the principal component of General Government Debt.

Details of the provisional and unaudited composition of Gross National Debt, its residual maturity and average interest rates as at end-June 2017 are set out in the table below.

The exact maturity dates of all Government bonds and EU-IMF Programme loans are available on the website of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) athttp://www.ntma.ie/business-areas/funding-and-debt-management. 

An annual maturity profile of Ireland’s Long-Term Marketable and Official Debt is also available on the NTMA website at

.

The highest individual rate of interest applying to current debt outstanding is on the Irish Amortising Bonds due to mature in January 2037 (€114 million outstanding at end-June 2017), May 2042 (€217 million) and September 2047 (€123 million).  Each of these bonds carries an annual coupon of 5.92%.

Gross National Debt as at end-June 2017---
InstrumentOutstanding BalanceWeighted Average Residual MaturityWeighted Average Interest Rate
-€bnYears%
Government Bonds128.910.73.5%1
EU-IMF Programme50.210.722.1%2
State Savings 17.3330.33%-1.5%3
Other Medium and Long-Term Debt1.919.543.0%4
Short term debt9.950.35-0.4%5
Total Gross National Debt208.2--
Source: NTMA---
The figures in the table above are provisional and unaudited. They are therefore subject to revision.

Rounding may affect totals. National Debt figures take account of the effect of currency hedging transactions.

Notes to table:

1The nominal interest rate is displayed, which differs from the yield at issue. Government Bonds include an Inflation-linked bond which pays an annual coupon of 0.25%; the actual interest payments on this bond will be linked to the Eurostat Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Ireland, excluding tobacco).

2EFSM loans are subject to maturity extensions designed to bring the original weighted average maturity to 19.5 years. It is not expected that Ireland will have to refinance any of its EFSM loans before 2027. However as the revised maturity dates of individual EFSM loans will only be determined as they approach their original maturity dates, the weighted average maturity figure above does not fully reflect the maturity extensions. Including certain assumptions for EFSM maturity extensions, the estimated residual weighted average maturity of EU-IMF Programme loans was 12.6 years at end-June 2017. The EU-IMF Programme interest rate is an estimated weighted average, euro equivalent interest rate.

3State Savings Schemes also include money invested by depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) which does not form part of the National Debt but is part of General Government Debt.  Taking into account POSB Deposits, total State Savings outstanding were €20.3 billion at end-June 2017. State Savings include products with original maturities ranging from 3 - 10 years. These products generally have a very high re-investment rate. Irrespective of the original term, NTMA State Savings products can be encashed on demand at any time - repayment takes 7 days. Prize Bonds can be encashed when 90 days have elapsed after the purchase date and you will receive the full face value on your bonds within 7 working days. The interest rates shown are the maximum interest rates (AER) payable on the fixed term, fixed rate products available for purchase at end-June 2017. It was announced in July 2017 that the Prize Bond prize fund rate was to change to 0.50%, from 0.85%, applicable from August 2017.

4The table shows the weighted average maturity and interest rate for Private Placements, Euro Medium Term Notes, and loans from the European Investment Bank and Council of Europe Development Bank.

5The table shows the weighted average maturity and euro equivalent interest rate for Treasury Bills, Euro Commercial Paper, Exchequer Notes and Central Treasury Notes. The short-term debt outstanding balance also includes Borrowing from Ministerial Funds.

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