asked the Minister for Finance the amount of money paid abroad in local and foreign currency by the oil companies between 1st January and 31st March, 1973; between 1st April and 30th June, 1973; between 1st July and 30th September, 1973; between 1st October and 31st December, 1973; between 1st January and 31st March, 1974; and between 1st April and 30th June, 1974; and the value of Irish public sector debt held by each of the OPEC group of countries on each of the above dates.
Written Answers. - Statistics of Oil Company Payments.
134.
No information is available to my Department as to the amount or incidence of payments abroad by oil companies. I understand that such payments are normally made in sterling through the United Kingdom. It is estimated that the amount of Government debt held by OPEC counttries is of the order of £1 million. I may mention, however, that of our total foreign debt of £225 million, £81 million is in the form of bearer bonds and there is not, of course, any record of the ownership of these.