Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
239. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Finance the proportion of the national debt that is held by Irish bondholders; the proportion held by non-Irish bondholders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1251/21]
View answerI am informed by the National Treasury Management Agency that, at end-2020 total Gross National Debt stood at €219.5 billion. The table below details the composition of Ireland’s Gross National Debt at end-December 2020, including that Government bonds accounted for €136.8 billion or 62.3%. This Government bonds figure includes fixed rate treasury bonds, amortising bonds, inflation linked bonds and Floating Rate Notes.
Table 1 - Gross National Debt composition as at 31 December 2020
|
|
€bn |
% of TOTAL |
|
Government Bonds |
136.8 |
62.3 |
|
EU & UK Bilateral Loans |
41.4 |
18.9 |
|
State Savings Products |
18.8 |
8.6 |
|
Short Term Paper |
14.0 |
6.4 |
|
Other Medium and Long Term Debt |
4.1 |
1.9 |
|
Borrowing from Ministerial Funds |
4.3 |
2.0 |
|
TOTAL |
219.5 |
100.0 |
Please note that the figures in Table 1 are provisional outturn figures.
The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) publishes a statistical table on holdings of Irish Government Bonds on a monthly basis (available here: https://www.centralbank.ie/statistics/data-and-analysis/securities-statistics/holdings-of-long-term-irish-government-bonds).
The figures published on the CBI website, at end-November 2020, indicate that Irish Residents held €65.0 billion (nominal value) of Irish Government bonds while Non-Residents held €71.3 billion (nominal value) of Irish government bonds. CBI have indicated that these figures do not include inflation-linked bonds, which were issued as private placements.
