Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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153. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of cash reserves currently held by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA; if the NTMA has any plans to borrow further money on the markets in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32624/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has advised that at end-June 2014 the Exchequer had €20.6 billion available in Exchequer cash and other short-term investments. Cash balances are expected to decrease significantly by year-end due to the recent bond buy-back/switch conducted by the Agency (NTMA), the projected Exchequer Borrowing Requirement (EBR) in the second half of the year and maturing short-term debt.

On 10 July 2014, the NTMA completed an auction of €500 million of the benchmark 10-Year Irish Government bond, the 3.40% Treasury Bond 2024, at a yield of 2.315 per cent. With that transaction, the NTMA has raised €7 billion in the bond markets so far this year which is more than 87 per cent of the funding target of €8 billion announced in February 2014 for the full year. The auction on 10 July completes the bond auction schedule for the third quarter of 2014. A statement on the NTMA's bond issuance plans for the fourth quarter of 2014 will be made at a later date.

A Treasury Bill auction will take place on 18 September 2014, subject to market conditions. Details will be announced on 15 September.