merrion street

Commenting on Ireland's return to the market, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said...

This morning’s successful auction of 3 months treasury bills by the NTMA was a very important milestone on Ireland’s continuing path to recovery. The yield on the bonds at 1.80% was very competitive to its peer Group, market commentators were agreed that any level lower than 2% would be considered a good result, and demand was strong amongst Investors with a bid to cover of 2.8 times.

This was first time that the NTMA has raised money in the markets since September 2010 and highlights the significant progress that the Government has made in restoring Ireland’s reputation.

The markets have reacted positively to our strong programme implementation to date, to the decisive Yes Vote in the recent Referendum on the Stability Treaty and the decision taken at last weeks summit to break the negative links between the sovereign and the banks. This has seen the yields on long term Government bonds halve in the past twelve months making the Irish bonds the best performing sovereign bond in the euro zone over the last year.

The Government is focused on emerging from the programme and returning to the markets next year. Today’s return to the Treasury bill market is a small but a very important first step in this regard and we will continue to take the necessary measures to fully implement our programme and reduce our deficit in line with commitments."