The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is to auction €500 million of treasury bills with a six-month maturity this Thursday.

The auction will be conducted between 8.30am and 10.30am on the Bloomberg Auction System and is confined to recognised primary dealers.

The agency is advancing plans to step up the sale of new debt this year, with up to €15 billion in long-term bond sales.

The NTMA has sold €11.75 billion in long-term debt since the start of 2014, and is also taking steps to ease the burden of an €8 billion debt that matures in April 2016.