Noonan hails 'extraordinary' response to Ireland's 10-year bond sale
The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has described as "extraordinary" the response to Ireland's first 10-year bond sale since the Troika bailout.
The minister said "we're well on our way" to leaving the programme.
It is understood that the Government had hoped to borrow around €3bn and there were offers totalling €12bn.
Mr Noonan said, after discussions with the National Treasury Management Agency, we will now borrow €5bn.
The average interest rate is expected to be around 4.15%, well below the highs of more than 14% when we were forced into the bailout.
The move means the country is now all but financed up to the end of next year, a remarkable change to where we were three-and-a-half years ago.
This was the first time the National Treasury Management Agency attempted to borrow money for 10 years since the autumn of 2010.
Back then we effectively got locked out of the long-term bond markets when the interest we woud have to pay went higher and higher.
Once the bailout happened the interest rate demanded climbed to over 15%.
