Ireland raised €1.5 billion in what was its final auction of Government bonds this year on Thursday.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which is the Republic’s funding and debt management agency, handled the sale.
With the completion of Thursday’s auction, the NTMA has issued €8.25 billion of benchmark bonds in 2025.
The agency said last year it would seek to issue between €6 billion and €10 billion of bonds during 2025 against the backdrop of a large projected budget surplus.
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It said it did not plan to be active in the short-term treasury bills market this year.
The NTMA said on Thursday it completed an auction of €1.5 billion of the benchmark Irish Government bonds, made up of €1.1 billion of 2.5 per cent Treasury bonds that mature in 2034 at a market interest rate, or yield, of 2.921 per cent.
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It sold another €400 million worth of 3.15 per cent Treasury bonds that mature in 2055 at a yield of 3.690 per cent.
The auction completes the NTMA’s benchmark bond issuance for the year, and it will publish its annual funding plan for 2026 in December.
The agency, led by chief executive Frank O’Connor, sold just €6 billion of bonds in 2024, at the bottom end of its targeted range, and slightly below the figure of about €7 billion raised in each of the two previous years.
Mr O’Connor said the State was “well positioned against the backdrop of uncertain markets” when the agency published its latest annual report in July, even though Ireland still had debt of more than €200 billion.
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.
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.
