{"id":448145,"date":"2026-05-14T08:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/448145\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:35:11","slug":"irish-national-debt-could-reach-e250bn-by-2030s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/448145\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish national debt could reach \u20ac250bn by 2030s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland’s national debt now stands at \u20ac200 billion and could reach \u20ac250bn by the 2030s, the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts will hear today.<\/p>\n

The Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency will tell the committee that this would be “very high-level indebtedness” that “carries risk”.<\/p>\n

Frank O\u2019Connor will also tell the committee that the agency managed a national debt of around \u20ac30 billion at its inception 35 years ago, and “that was seen as high then”.<\/p>\n

The NTMA is responsible for managing public assets and liabilities for long-term benefit on behalf of the State.<\/p>\n

He will say that it is something that debt managers cannot be complacent about and “the ability to service that debt is critical”.<\/p>\n

“Record low interest rates that arose from Quantitative Easing” in recent years made servicing debt “easier and cheaper,” Mr O\u2019Connor will say.<\/p>\n

TDs and senators will hear that in 2024 the cost of the NTMA servicing debt was \u20ac3.2 billion, 60% below its peak of \u20ac8 billion in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nNTMA CEO Frank O’Connor will tell the PAC that the national debt now stands at \u20ac200 billion<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connor will say that the NTMA “took advantage of the low-interest rate era by locking in low borrowing costs for long terms”.<\/p>\n

The agency also borrowed money early at low rates, he will say, before warning “that era is now over”.<\/p>\n

“The benefits of borrowing at low fixed rates will recede, as these lower-cost debts gradually mature and are replaced with more expensive debt.<\/p>\n

“We also have to be prepared for rates potentially rising further and the additional costs that would come with that,” Mr O’Connor will say.<\/p>\n

NTMA yet to recover \u20ac2.5m stolen in phishing attack<\/p>\n

The committee will also hear that the NTMA has yet to recover half of the \u20ac5m stolen during a voice phishing attack last summer.<\/p>\n

The agency oversees the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which invests in projects that support economic activity and employment in Ireland.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the agency received a fraudulent payment request from a third party that was designed and timed to pass as a legitimate request from an investee of the fund.<\/p>\n

It was reported that voice impersonation and a fake invoice was used to carry out the scam.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connor will tell the committee that \u20ac2.5m of the stolen \u20ac5m has been recovered so far.<\/p>\n

He will reiterate that there was no compromise of the NTMA’s IT systems.<\/p>\n

The committee will hear that Deloitte conducted an independent forensic investigation to “establish the facts and to examine relevant internal controls”.<\/p>\n

This investigation is now completed, and the NTMA will say it has engaged with the Comptroller and the Auditor General on the issue.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connor will say that enhanced controls were put in place immediately after the incident to protect it against future financial crime risks.<\/p>\n

“Deloitte’s investigation also recommended certain key measures to increase protection against similar financial crime risks, which we have implemented in full,” he will say.<\/p>\n

The NTMA is continuing its efforts to recover the rest of the stolen money, Mr O’Connor will say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland’s national debt now stands at \u20ac200 billion and could reach \u20ac250bn by the 2030s, the Oireachtas Committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-448145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448145","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=448145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}