Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
247. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a detailed breakdown of Ireland's off-balance sheet debt; and if he will express the total as a percentage of our GDP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13633/14]
View answerUnder the European System of Accounts, the public sector consists of all entities controlled by government. It is split between general government and the public corporations.
- General government in Ireland consists of the Exchequer, Government departments and offices, Local Authorities, and all public entities that are mainly financed by those bodies. General government debt is the consolidated debt of this sector.
- The public corporations sector in Ireland consists of such bodies as the ESB, Bord Gáis and CIÉ in the non-financial corporations sector; and AIB and IL&P in the financial corporations sector; the Central Bank is also part of the public sector. The debts of these entities and other public corporations are not part of general government debt and are thus considered 'off-balance sheet'.
A register of public bodies is maintained by the CSO and is available at http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/surveysandmethodologies/documents/pdfdocs/RegPublicSectorBodies.pdf
The CSO currently compile estimates of the liabilities of public corporations for transmission to Eurostat on a confidential basis, however from end 2014 these data will also be published nationally. The current estimate for the total stock of liabilities of public corporations end-2012 amounts to 216% of GDP. Of this amount, 120% is debt of financial corporations and 82% is debt of the Central Bank.
Notes
1. The percentages above represent the liabilities of public corporations. A measure of net debt of public corporations is not currently available. In the case of financial corporations and the Central Bank, the liabilities are largely matched by assets in the same asset classes that are used by the CSO to compute net debt.
2. It is worth adding that the NAMA SPV is classified in the financial corporations sector in the national accounts. That is to say that the NAMA SPV is a private corporation and therefore its liabilities are not be included in the debts of public corporations. The liabilities of NAMA are, however, fully guaranteed by government and are therefore included in statement 1.11 of the Finance Accounts where it is shown for 2012 that NAMA held debt amounting to 16% of GDP. 3. The EU-wide definition of debt does not include pension liabilities of general government. An estimate of the pension liability of government of €116bn is given in the CSO Government Finance Statistics publication. This figure is based on a 2009 estimate by the C&AG which is currently being updated by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
