{"id":669493,"date":"2026-10-30T03:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T03:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669493\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T03:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T03:44:31","slug":"ireland-plans-to-repay-e8bn-in-bailout-loans-early-to-save-on-interest-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669493\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland plans to repay \u20ac8bn in bailout loans early to save on interest costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T\u00e1naiste <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/simon-harris_topic-5075291.html\">Simon Harris<\/a> said he would seek to give the country\u2019s debt agency the option to repay \u20ac8bn in loans received as part of Ireland\u2019s 2010 international bailout ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed repayments relate to loans provided under the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ireland has \u20ac15.3bn in EFSM debt outstanding, accounting for just under half of the debt due to be repaid to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/european-union-eu_topic-5333968.html\">European<\/a> institutions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThis will save money. The only reason we would do it is if it actually saves the taxpayers money on interest payments on debt,\u201d Mr Harris told  Newstalk in an interview, saying he had brought the proposal to Cabinet this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ireland repaid the last of its IMF loans ahead of schedule nine years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A surge in corporate tax revenue from US multinationals has transformed the country\u2019s public finances since then, leading to large budget surpluses in each of the last four years and limiting Ireland\u2019s borrowing needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The country\u2019s debt agency also had cash and liquid assets totalling \u20ac28bn at the end of September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The early repayment, which RT\u00c9 said is expected to be made by year-end following consultation with the European Commission, would reduce Ireland\u2019s national debt.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This stood at \u20ac210bn, or 63% of modified gross national income, at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n             \u00a0&#8211; Reuters\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said he would seek to give the country\u2019s debt agency the option to repay \u20ac8bn&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,249575,61,60,70],"class_list":["post-669493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-european-union-eu","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669493","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=669493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}