Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Defence the amount spent on peace keeping operations over each of the past five years; and if he will itemise the spend.

Reply from Minister Alan Shatter: Amounts paid in respect of the remuneration of military personnel serving with UN and EU peace support operations, together with travel and subsistence and transportation costs (troops and freight), for each of the past five years, are set out in the table above. Equipment costs are not included in the figures, as equipment is generally not procured for a specific mission.

Arrangements for the reimbursement of certain costs have been agreed with the UN. Amounts actually received from the UN in the relevant years are:

Answered on May 28, 2013
To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons from County Waterford that have applied for grants under the new rainwater harvesting scheme since it commenced on 1 March 2011; and the total amount paid out to farmers in each county under this scheme to date.

Reply from Minister Simon Coveney: One applicant from Co Waterford has applied for a grant under the Rainwater Harvesting Scheme since it was introduced in March 2011. 

One payment of €8,000 has been made under the Scheme, to date, to an applicant from Co Cork. 

Due to the low up-take by farmers of grants under this Scheme, I have transferred €4 million of the available funding to the TAMS Dairy Equipment Scheme.

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs funding her Department has allocated, and to which projects, in Tramore, County Waterford, in each of the past five years.

Reply from Minister Frances Fitzgerald: The information requested is being collated by my Department and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as soon as it is finalised. 

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of National Lottery sports funding his Department has granted, and to which clubs, in Tramore, County Waterford, in each of the past five years.

Reply from Minister of State for Sports and Tourism, Michael Ring: Details of all grants awarded under the Sports Capital Programme, which is part funded from the proceeds of the National Lottery, are available on my Department's website, www.dttas.ie. 

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport funding his Department has granted for tourism initiatives in Tramore, County Waterford, and to which local organisations or bodies, in each of the past five years.
 
Reply from Minister Leo Varadkar: The matter raised is an operational matter for Fáilte Ireland.  I have referred the Deputy's question to Fáilte Ireland for direct reply. Please contact my private office if a reply is not received within ten working days. 

Answered on May 28, 2013
To ask the Minister for Finance if he will release figures or statistics on mortgage arrears on a county basis including incorporating three month arrears, six month arrears and 12 month arrears data.

Reply from Minister Michael Noonan: The Central Bank commenced the quarterly publication of mortgage and mortgage arrears data from the period ending September 2009.  The most recent available data, which is for the quarter ending December 2012, indicates that 11.9% of PDH mortgages and 18.9% of BTL mortgages were in arrears of more than 90 days.  The full range of published mortgage arrears data is available on the Central Bank’s website, www.centralbank.ie.

However, the Central Bank has advised me that it does not publish a geographical breakdown of its quarterly mortgage arrears statistics.

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Finance the percentage of non-performing loans in Irish State owned banks.

Reply from Minister Michael Noonan: The percentage of non-performing loans in AIB and ptsb are set out above.

The deputy should note that the banks provide further details regarding the non-performing loan portfolios in their annual report and accounts.

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Finance the official estimated growth levels here for the next three years.

Reply from Minister Michael Noonan: The Department’s latest growth forecasts, in both GDP and GNP terms, are outlined above.

The Department’s latest macro-economic forecasts were published on April 30 in the Irish Stability Programme -  April 2013 Update. The publication can be accessed on the Department’s website at www.finance.gov.ie.

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Finance the expected debt to GDP ratio for each year of the next five years.

Reply from Minister Michael Noonan: The projected general government debt to GDP ratio for the periods 2012 to 2016 and 2016 to 2019 are available on pages 54 and 49, respectively, of the Irish Stability Programme April 2013 Update. The corresponding data requested by the Deputy relating to the expected debt to GDP ratio for each year for the next five years is listed in the table above.

Source: Department of Finance, NTMA and CSO  

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Finance if he will list Ireland's creditors and itemise the amounts owed to each creditor.

Reply from Minister Michael Noonan: Those persons/entities holding Irish Government debt would be considered Ireland’s main creditors. The most recent estimate of Gross General Government Debt is for end 2012, when it stood at €192.5 billion. The largest components of Gross General Government Debt at end 2012, as shown in the table below, were Governments bonds and EU/IMF Programme loans.

With regard to the ownership of Government bonds, while the Central Bank of Ireland is the registrar for Irish Government bonds, the manner in which they are settled and registered does not allow for the identification of individual holders. However, the Central Bank’s Quarterly Bulletins contain some limited information on holders of Irish Government bonds, disaggregated between resident and non-resident holders. Furthermore, the ECB announced in February 2013 that it held €14.2 billion of Irish Government bonds at end 2012.

With regard to developments in 2013, the Deputy will be aware that the promissory notes in respect of IBRC were replaced by €25 billion of floating rate bonds in February and are currently held by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Rounding can affect totals.

The figures in the table are unaudited figures and take account of the effect of currency hedging transactions.

*These are the liabilities outstanding under the EU/IMF Programme as at end 2012 and take account of the effect of currency hedging transactions. A prepaid margin of €0.53 billion was deducted from the EFSF loan of €4.19 billion drawn down on 1 February 2011. The EFSF figure in the table takes account of this reduction.

**State Savings is the brand name used by the NTMA to describe the range of savings products offered by the State to personal savers. These products include Savings Bonds, Savings Certificates, Instalments Savings, National Solidarity Bonds, and Prize Bonds. State Savings Schemes also include moneys placed by depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). These funds are mainly lent to the Exchequer as short-term advances. Taking into account the POSB, total State Savings outstanding was €16.3 billion at end 2012 
  
***Of which, Exchequer cash balances and other short-term cash management balances accounted for €19.3 billion at end 2012 

****In February 2013, €25 billion of floating rate Government bonds were issued to the Central Bank of Ireland in exchange for the Promissory Notes previously held by IBRC.                                                         
Source: NTMA and Central Statistics Office (CSO)