ECONOMY:
The economy shrank in size by more than one-fifth in the three years to the end of 2010, according to the report. Gross national product, which excludes multinational profits, fell by 21.5 per cent since 2007.
The cost of debt servicing, EU stability support and share capital injections into the banks was 3.7 per cent of expenditure in 2010, in terms of GNP. Servicing the national debt in 2010 cost €979 million.
The net national debt at the end of 2010 was €93.4 billion, a sharp rise from the €75.2 billion of a year earlier. During 2010 the government issued promissory notes valued at €30.85 billion to three banks.
Public borrowing increased to €148 billion at the end of 2010 with the gross national debt accounting for €109 billion of that.
The cost of paying pensions earned as at the end of 2009, over the following 60 years, was estimated at €116 billion.
The National Pension Reserve Fund was valued at €22.7 billion at the end of 2010.
However, it received €1.88 billion in EU funds. Ireland contributed €1.35 billion to the EU budget in 2010, according to the Comptroller Auditor General’s report.
- COLM KEENA
CO-LOCATION OF HOSPITALS
Nearly €1.5 million was paid in legal and financial costs associated with the now-abandoned plans to develop co-located private hospitals, the comptroller’s report says.
Project agreements for each of these hospitals expired at the end of last March when the time period allowed for bidders to secure funding elapsed.
-
MARTIN WALL
OVERSEAS AID
Irish overseas development aid peaked in 2008 at €921 million and totalled €671 million in 2010, according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Of the spending in 2010, some €522 million was processed through Irish Aid, an agency controlled by the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The comptroller concluded that between 2000 and 2008 good progress was made towards the UN aid target for developed countries.
The target was 0.7 per cent of GNP each year and in 2008 Ireland had reached 0.59 per cent of GNP.
While progress then fell off, a review carried out in 2010 showed Ireland’s ability to meet its commitments under
the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action was still generally positive.
- TIM O'BRIEN