Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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142. To ask the Minister for Finance when the State will hold its first debt sale of 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1284/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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On 7 January 2014 the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) sold €3.75 billion of a new benchmark Treasury Bond maturing in March 2024 via a syndicated sales process. The bond was sold at a yield of 3.543 per cent.

Of the amount issued 17 per cent was taken up by domestic investors and 83 per cent by overseas investors. The overseas investors were mainly from the U.K. (26%), the Nordic region (15%), Germany, Austria and Switzerland (14%), and the U.S. and Canada (14%).

Investor interest in the bond was even broader than in the previous benchmark bond sale of March 2013. The order book included interest from some 400 fund managers, pension funds, insurance companies, banks and other investors, including some from the Middle East and Asia. The total book amounted to some €14 billion.

This 10-year bond sale is the NTMA’s first capital market transaction since the exit from the EU/IMF Programme in December 2013. The size of the final order book and the spread of investor interest across the globe demonstrate the appetite for Irish Sovereign debt and Ireland’s ability to fund its needs in the private debt markets. Notwithstanding the large order book the NTMA restricted the size of the deal to €3.75 billion in order to accommodate bond auctions in its funding programme for the remainder of the year.

It is clear from the very significant demand we have seen that international and domestic investors recognise the enormous progress Ireland has made. This transaction is a real success that cements Ireland’s return to the international debt markets and provides a strong platform for bond auctions over the remainder of the year.