{"id":448129,"date":"2026-05-14T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/448129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:26:08","slug":"irelands-national-debt-could-hit-e250bn-in-2030s-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/448129\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s national debt could hit \u20ac250bn in 2030s \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s national debt could approach \u20ac250 billion by the 2030s, the head of the National Treasury Management Agency<\/a> (NTMA) will tell an Oireachtas committee on Thursday.<\/p>\n

NTMA chief executive Frank O\u2019Connor is expected to warn the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee<\/a> (PAC) that such a level of debt carries risk and that the era of the State borrowing money at low interest rates was over. <\/p>\n

He will say the State needs to be prepared to pay higher costs in the future.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor is expected to say that, when the NTMA was established 35 years ago, Ireland had a national debt of about \u20ac30 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was seen as high then. But today it is over \u20ac200 billion \u2013 and by the 2030s will potentially be approaching a quarter of a trillion euro. While the population and the size of the economy have grown since then, it is still a very high level of indebtedness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat level of debt carries risk. It is not something that we, as debt managers, can afford to be complacent about. And the ability to service that debt is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor is likely to tell the committee that record low interest rates from policies of quantitative easing in recent years made servicing debt easier and cheaper. However, that era is now over, he is expected to say.<\/p>\n

He will also say that, in 2024, it cost \u20ac3.2 billion to service the national debt \u2013 about 60 per cent lower than peak debt servicing costs of \u20ac8 billion in 2013.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0National debt down but we still owe \u20ac38,460 per personOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took advantage of the low interest rate era by locking in low borrowing costs for long terms. We built a debt profile that has one of the longest average maturities in Europe,\u201d he is expected to say. \u201cIn addition, we pre-funded, borrowing money early at low rates instead of waiting to borrow at higher rates. But that era is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NTMA chief is expected to say \u201cthe benefits of borrowing at low fixed rates will recede, as these lower-cost debts gradually mature and are replaced with more expensive debt\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have to be prepared for rates potentially rising further and the additional costs that would come with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The intervention comes after AIB warned in its latest economic outlook that inflation could rise to 7 per cent this year if the Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded for an extended period.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor will also tell the committee that the NTMA has now recovered more of the \u20ac5 million stolen from the agency last year.<\/p>\n

He will say the theft arose after the NTMA received a fraudulent payment request from a third party that was designed and timed to pass as a legitimate request from an Ireland Strategic Investment Fund investee.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0NTMA silent on future role for Nama chief as Bill to dissolve \u2018bad bank\u2019 is publishedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have previously disclosed the recovery of an initial \u20ac1.52 million of the \u20ac5 million stolen in the incident. I can disclose today that we have since recovered more money, bringing the total net recovery to \u20ac2.5 million. We are continuing our recovery efforts,\u201d O\u2019Connor is expected to tell the committee.<\/p>\n

He is also likely to say that an independent forensic investigation to establish the facts in relation to the theft and to examine relevant internal controls, which was carried out by consultants Deloitte, is now complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s national debt could approach \u20ac250 billion by the 2030s, the head of the National Treasury Management Agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60,25383],"class_list":["post-448129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-debt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}