The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is expected to launch a multibillion-euro bond sale as soon as next week, having confirmed on Friday that it is planning a debt issuance through a syndicate of banks and brokerages during the first quarter of this year.

The agency, which manages fundraising and the debt of the State, also said it plans to hold one bond auction during the period, on March 12th.

The State is typically among the first sovereigns in Europe every year to carry out a syndicated bond deal to get ahead of a slew of issuance from countries and corporations. However, in the past two years, it has opted to tap the bond markets in the middle of January.

Last January, the NTMA raised €3 billion through the sale of 30-year bonds.

“Given the lower funding requirements of recent years, the NTMA has been less inclined to jockey for a position on the issuance slate and have instead exercised patience when coming to the market with a new issue at the start of the year.

“With the return of more normal funding requirements, we expect the agency to have a keener interest in engaging the market this time round,” said Roderick McAuliffe, a bond trader with Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland.

“We expect the agency to issue a new benchmark 10-year [bond] within the first half of the month.”

The agency, led by chief executive Frank O’Connor, published in investor update on its website days before Christmas, which is being seen by market participants as a clear signal that it intends to be an early issuer again in 2026.

[ Ireland to raise as much as €14bn in bonds next yearOpens in new window ]

The NTMA plans to issue between €10 billion and €14 billion in long-term debt, the agency said in a statement early last month. That compares to a range of €6 billion to €10 billion originally planned for 2025. The debt office ultimately raised about €8.25 billion.

The higher target for this year reflects the fact that €15 billion in debt maturities must be refinanced in 2026.

This year’s bond sales will come against a backdrop of growing concerns about the sustainability of the State’s tax receipts, with corporation tax in particular under the spotlight given a handful of big multinationals account for such a huge proportion of that tax.

Still, the Government collected a record monthly figure of €10 billion in corporation tax in November, amid a likely surge in payments from the tech and pharma sectors.

The NTMA investor presentation highlighted that while the Irish economic position is “resilient”, headwinds from US tariffs on trading partners globally – including the EU – “will impact growth in 2026”. The Government forecasts that Irish modified domestic demand – a measure of economic growth that strips out the activities of foreign-owned multinationals – will ease to 2.3 per cent this year from 3.3 per cent in 2025.

The State is “well positioned against the backdrop of uncertain markets” even though Ireland still has debt of more than €200 billion and there is no place for complacency, Mr O’Connor said in July.

“There is a strong market awareness of the buffers we have in place through our funding and debt management strategy,” said Mr O’Connor at the time. “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.”

The NTMA had €43.1 billion of cash and liquid investments on its balance sheet as of the end of November, according to the latest presentation.