{"id":539842,"date":"2026-07-08T20:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/539842\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:45:13","slug":"harris-defends-likely-borrowing-for-funds-even-as-irish-interest-bill-set-to-double-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/539842\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris defends likely borrowing for funds even as Irish interest bill set to double \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> has defended the likely need for the State to borrow in the coming year to fund commitments to two sovereign wealth funds, even as the National Treasury Management Agency <\/a>(NTMA) warned on Wednesday that the interest bill on the national debt is on track to double to about \u20ac6 billion by the early 2030s. <\/p>\n

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac)<\/a> highlighted last month that the Government will need to borrow in the future to adhere to a commitment to invest 0.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually into the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. The funds were established in 2024 as a way of putting windfall corporation tax revenues to work to help meet long-term liabilities of the State. <\/p>\n

That was based on medium-term net-spending plans and gross Government debt estimates outlined by the Department of Finance in April. <\/p>\n

NTMA chief executive Frank O\u2019Connor<\/a> said the agency\u2019s annual interest bill will likely double from \u20ac3 billion currently to \u201csomewhere in the region of \u20ac6 billion\u201d by the early 2030s. <\/p>\n

This will result from the NTMA having to refinance at higher rates debt raised when global borrowing costs were at ultra-low levels in the past \u2013 and the fact that Government debt is poised to rise from \u20ac210 billion at the end of last year to \u201cclose to\u201d \u20ac250 billion. <\/p>\n

About \u20ac20 billion of debt will need to be refinanced both in 2029 and 2030, the highest levels in about a decade, including initial repayments of European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) loans granted during the State\u2019s international bailout 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Buoyant tax receipts provide cover for runaway State spendingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cShould borrowing be required to populate the funds, that, in and of itself, is not a bad thing,\u201d Harris said in response questions at an NTMA press briefing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, if you\u2019re putting in place funds that are investing in the future competitiveness and demographic needs of your country, that is potentially a very good use of borrowing. But it may not be required, and these will be calls that will need to be looked at on an annual basis.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"The 9 per cent VAT rate has been welcomed by restaurants but does the hospitality sector actually need it?<\/p>\n

While the Government plans to ramp up capital spending on infrastructure in the coming decade under the National Development Plan, Ifac officials said current spending \u2212 covering the day-to-day costs of services and income supports \u2013 is on track to account for 80 per cent of the forecast growth in total spending out to 2030.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said that the investment commitment to the funds continues to \u201cresonate very well\u201d with global investors in Irish debt. <\/p>\n

The investment committee of the Future Ireland Fund (FIF), which is aimed at growing to \u20ac100 billion of assets by 2025 to help pay for additional healthcare and pension costs associated with a growing and ageing population from 2041, decided in January to initially put 80 per cent of its assets into equities, with the remainder in bonds. <\/p>\n

Some 90 per cent of the money in the smaller second fund, the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF), will be put to work in low-risk bonds and deposit accounts, with the remaining 10 per cent in public higher-risk bonds.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said that the FIF is phasing its entry into equities over the space of a year and is \u201cconscious\u201d about the current debate about stock valuations globally, particularly in the artificial intelligence (AI) space. He noted that the fund is designed very much \u201cfor the long term\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Finance Simon Harris has defended the likely need for the State to borrow in the coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,113,61,975,60,40231,70],"class_list":["post-539842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-investment","tag-ireland","tag-national-treasury-management-agency-ntma","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539842","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=539842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}