Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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279. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide a breakdown of ownership of Irish sovereign debt including detail of the amount held by any central bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3052/25]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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280. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide a breakdown of all sovereign debt held by the State within the general government sector including detail of the amount held by the Central Bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3053/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 279 and 280 together.

I am answering this Question on the basis that the Deputy is referring to Irish Sovereign Debt only.

At year-end 2024 Gross National Debt (GND) stood at €232.7bn. The table below provides a breakdown of that figure into the various debt components.

*Provisional, unaudited figures.

Over €40bn or close to one-fifth of GND is in the form of loans from the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM), the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the SURE Programme. The EFSM and EFSF loans formed part of the EU-IMF Programme 2010-2013. The SURE Programme loan was drawn down in 2021 to assist in dealing with the employment impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The other Medium/Long-term debt category in the table above includes loans from the European Investment Bank and Council of Europe Development Bank.

A further €19.6bn or 8% of the GND is in the form of Ireland State Savings products such as Savings Certificates, Savings Bonds, National Solidarity Bonds and Prize Bonds. The majority of this debt is held domestically by private individuals. Ireland State Savings also includes Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) deposits. While not an explicit component of GND, these funds are mainly lent to the Exchequer as an alternative source of Exchequer funding and liquidity. Including POSB deposits, total State Savings outstanding stood at €24.2bn at end-2024.

Short-term paper debt outstanding at end-2024 was in the form of Exchequer Notes and Central Treasury Notes only. These notes are primarily held by Irish domestic public sector entities, and by extension therefore most of this debt is held by bodies within the General Government sector.

GND also includes borrowings from other funds under the control of the Minister for Finance, namely the Post Office Savings Bank Fund and the Surplus Public Expenditure Monies Account, both of which are classified within the General Government sector.

Of course, most Irish public debt is in the form of Irish Government bonds, which accounted for over 60% of GND at year-end 2024.

While the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) is the registrar for Irish Government bonds, the way they are settled and registered now does not allow for the identification of individual holders.

However, the CBI publishes some information on holders of Irish Government bonds, disaggregated between resident and non-resident holders (see link below)

.

At end-November 2024 resident holders accounted for 49% of bonds outstanding.

Within the resident category, Credit Institutions and the Central Bank are by far the largest holders. This primarily reflects the purchase of bonds under the European Central Bank’s Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) and the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).

Central Bank of Ireland book value holdings of Irish government bonds under the PEPP and PSPP at end-2024 was €53.5bn.