Treasury agency hails reduction in national debt

14/07/2005 - 13:46:39
Interest payments on Ireland's national debt are just one fifth of what they were 10 years ago, according to the National Treasury Management Agency.

In its latest annual report, the agency said Ireland's total national debt had also been reduced to the equivalent of around eight months' tax revenue.

When the body was established in 1990, it took more than three months' tax revenue just to pay interest on the debt.

Speaking at the launch of the report today, NTMA chief executive Michael Somers said Ireland had the second-lowest GDP-to-debt ratio in the EU15, the countries that made up the European Union before its expansion to 25 members last year.

"Apart from Luxembourg, we're the lowest among the original member states," he said.