Taoiseach and Finance Minister welcome NTMA's long-date bond auction
The Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach have both welcomed Ireland's borrowing of money from markets today, at an affordable interest rate of below 6%.
It brings Ireland one step closer to exiting the Troika bailout programme.
Two weeks ago the National Treasury Management Agency successfully borrowed money for three months.
But in a surprise move this morning, the agency announced it was to immediately seek to borrow money for five and eight years.
The NTMA says it raised 5.23 billion in this auction - 4.19 billion of that was in new money.
Three quarters of the demand for the bonds was from abroad, with significant interest from Scandanavia and North America.
Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties this evening, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance, John Moran, said it was an historic achievement - though he has sounded a cautious note:
"July 26th will go down as a significant day, I don't think it is yet the end of the story we have a long way to go", he said
"We haven't been able to convince external people to invest in Irish government bonds since September 2010 so you can see why today is a very important significant step towards actually getting back economic independence"
