The State is “well positioned against the backdrop of uncertain markets” even though the Ireland still has debt of more than €200 billion and there is no place for complacency, National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) chief executive Frank O’Connor said as the agency published its latest annual report.
“There is a strong market awareness of the buffers we have in place through our funding and debt management strategy,” said Mr O’Connor. “The strength of our public finances coupled with the long weighted average maturity of our debt, means we expect to have relatively low borrowing requirements in the short to medium term.”
Mr O’Connor said that at the end of 2024 general Government debt was at €218 billion – almost €20 billion below the post pandemic peak.
The agency has raised €5.25 billion so far this year in the bond market, close to the bottom end of its €6 billion-€10 billion fundraising target. It had over €30 billion in cash and liquid assets at the half year point, reducing the requirement for borrowing in the coming year, amid heightened global economic uncertainty as a result of the Trump administration trade policies and heightened geopolitical tension in the Middle East.
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US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he planned to introduce a 30 per cent tariff on goods coming from the EU at the beginning of August. However, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said at the NTMA briefing that it is still possible for Brussels and Washington to reach an agreement on trade by that time.
“We are now entering into a crucial final phase of this engagement”, he said.
The State’s ratio of debt to modified gross national income-star (GNI*) stood at just below 70 per cent at the end of last year – down from about 160 per cent in 2012 and approximately 100 per cent in 2021.
Mr O’Connor said Ireland was also benefiting from locking in low interest rates in previous years. He said debt interest cost €3.2 billion in 2024 which was almost 60 per cent lower than its peak over a decade ago.
“Sentiment towards Ireland is positive, as demonstrated by robust ongoing demand for our debt and a positive trend of upgrades from ratings agencies”, he said. The State’s creditworthiness is rated AA by Moody’s, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch, the world’s three main debt ratings agencies.
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Two new sovereign wealth funds set up last year to capture and invest windfall tax revenues are set to have about €16 billion on their books between them by the end of the year, according to Mr O’Connor.
Mr O’Connor said that NTMA will have to “look hard” at its systems and protocols after it was discovered in recent days a €5 million fraud had been perpetrated against it.
The payment was made to a third party at a time when there was a financial drawdown or capital call anticipated, involving one investee company of the NTMA-managed Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (Isif) There had previously been a legitimate payment to the company.
The €5 million fraud was “an extremely serious matter” for the agency, he said, adding that once the issue was discovered last week, the NTMA immediately made a report to the Garda, the Department of Finance and other relevant authorities.
He said there was no suggestion that there had been an IT breach or any threat to the IT systems in the NTMA.
