# Did government pay off national debt during tiger years?



## zxcvbnm (29 Mar 2009)

I heard mary coughlan on marian finnucanes show over this weekend saying that the givernment did not waste the boom years.

She claimed that the government 
a) Paid off a large amount of teh national debt and 
b) put money into pensions.

So - can anyone tell me over the course of the last 10-12 years in ballpark terms how much of the national debt did the government pay off and how much did they put into the pension reserve?


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## z109 (29 Mar 2009)

I can do better than ballpark:
[broken link removed]
National debt at end of 1997: 39 bn
Lowest point of national debt during FF gov end 2006: 36 bn
National debt at end of 2008: 50 bn
(Not counting some 22 bn of commercial paper and some 4 bn of other short-term debt all due this year - personally, I would call the national debt 76 bn, even though 20 bn of it is unspent as this is what eurostat does...)

The government put in, I believe 16 bn into the NPRF, so even discounting the short-term debt issuance, the government have, net, 5 bn to show for the twelve years they've been in office.

Yes, Ms. Coughlan, the state's finances are under control...


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## UptheDeise (1 Apr 2009)

yoganmahew said:


> I can do better than ballpark:
> [broken link removed]
> National debt at end of 1997: 39 bn
> Lowest point of national debt during FF gov end 2006: 36 bn
> ...


 
Waaa ha ha ha ha. Lols. You should be on Questions and Answers and read that out to her. I could imagine her puss.


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## Holtend82 (1 Apr 2009)

This post will be deleted if not edited immediately !!


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## Caveat (1 Apr 2009)

What about the (in the not so distant past) occasions when we had a budget surplus?

I'm sure all this money was 'wisely invested' too.


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## Padraigb (1 Apr 2009)

Caveat said:


> What about the (in the not so distant past) occasions when we had a budget surplus?



The level of the debt did bubble up and down, so some surpluses were used to reduce the debt temporarily.

But the surpluses were not as large as they might have seemed. There were very large current budget surpluses in some years (we're talking billions), but they were generally used to fund the capital budget.


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## charliemacck (8 Apr 2009)

yoganmahew said:


> I can do better than ballpark:
> [broken link removed]
> National debt at end of 1997: 39 bn
> Lowest point of national debt during FF gov end 2006: 36 bn
> ...


 
People should print out this posting, and have it ready the next time someone from Fianna Fail comes to canvass you. It's absolute proof positive that Fianna Fail blew the boom.


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## Sherman (8 Apr 2009)

Padraigb said:


> The level of the debt did bubble up and down, so some surpluses were used to reduce the debt temporarily.
> 
> But the surpluses were not as large as they might have seemed. There were very large current budget surpluses in some years (we're talking billions), but they were generally used to _increase public sector wages_.


 
Fixed your post for you


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## Welfarite (17 Apr 2009)

Stats and damn lies....[broken link removed]


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## Butter (17 Apr 2009)

Really goes to show how you can prove what you want with statistics doesn't it?  Has national debt gone down in the last x numbers of years?
Answer 1 - No
Answer 2 - Yes


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## Padraigb (17 Apr 2009)

Sherman said:


> Fixed your post for you



If you want to take cheap shots at the public service, then I would prefer that you did not interfere with my words in order to do so.


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## elefantfresh (17 Apr 2009)

I'm lost now - so the debt is less or it isnt? Stats eh?


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## Padraigb (17 Apr 2009)

elefantfresh said:


> I'm lost now - so the debt is less or it isnt? Stats eh?



Stats: 
1990: National Debt was €31,849m (87.7% of GDP)
2006: National Debt was €35,917 (20.4% of GDP)
[broken link removed] (page 173).


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## jpd (17 Apr 2009)

Padraigb said:


> Stats:
> 1990: National Debt was €31,849m (87.7% of GDP)
> 2006: National Debt was €35,917 (20.4% of GDP)



2007: National Debt was €36,000 (25% of GDP)
2008: National Debt was €50,000 (41% of GDP)

and the official forecast for the future (from April 2009 budget data) is 

2009: National Debt will be 59% of GDP
2010: National Debt will be 73% of GDP
2011: National Debt will be 78% of GDP
2012: National Debt will be 77% of GDP


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## ollie323 (23 Apr 2009)

Has any country ever paid off their national debt? I believe in the 1800's, president Jackson in America was the first and only president to have ever done that. (Is this true?) Although i do remember hearing somewhere that Venezuela had paid or almost paid it off fairly recently. That piece of news came out just before all this credit crunch and recession started so they might very well be up to their eyes in debt to the Banksters once more!


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## Protocol (24 Apr 2009)

Some EU countries have very low public debts, e.g. 10% of GDP.


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## Strathspey (24 Apr 2009)

Are you ready to have your breath taken away?

The World's Biggest Debtor Nations:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30308959?slide=16

"You'll never beat the Irish"....


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