asked the Minister for Finance if he will state (1) what is the gross prospective value of the Marshall Aid Loan Counterpart Fund on the same basis of valuation as that employed in assessing gross liability for the loan in reply to question No. 10 of 5th November, and (2) whether any deficiency in the assets available to the fund for the repayment of the principal of the loan will transpire; and, if so, how much.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Marshall Aid.
Comprehensive information regarding the position, present and prospective, of the American Loan Counterpart Fund was supplied in answer to the Deputy's questions of 28th October and 5th November.
I might, perhaps, remind him that the real value of the American Loan was the dollar goods and services for which it paid and which for the most part have long since been consumed— for instance, the wheat, flour, maize and sorghums on which, in the absence of adequate home production of cereals, virtually half of our Marshall Aid was spent. The Loan Counterpart Fund derived basically from the purchasing power obtained by the State from the importers and consumers of the dollar goods and services provided out of the loan. As the Deputy will remember, there were, in consequence, substantial additions to the sterling holdings of the banking system during the years 1949 and 1950, when lodgments to the Counterpart Fund exceeded withdrawals for public purposes.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether the current revenue required to purchase dollars to repay instalments on Marshall Aid Loans is provided by transfers from Marshall Aid Loan Counterpart Fund.
As has already been explained to the Deputy in reply to his recent questions, the funds transferred from the American Loan Counterpart Fund to the Exchequer for the purpose of discharging payments of interest on the Marshall Aid Loan consistalmost entirely of payments already made from the Exchequer to the Loan Counterpart Fund by way of interest on Ways and Means Advances from the fund to the Exchequer. The interest on these advances is a statutory charge on the current revenue available to the Exchequer from taxation and other sources.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether and what net charges have fallen on tax revenue in respect of loan charges in respect of Marshall Aid Loan.
The information available on this subject has already been supplied to the Deputy in the replies given to his questions of the 28th October, 1953, and 5th November, 1953.