Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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18. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to refinance a quarter of the State's national debt between October 2017 and October 2020; and the steps being taken by the NTMA to minimise the risks to the State in this period of great economic uncertainty. [18352/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As I have outlined in my previous responses to the Deputy’s recent questions on this topic – PQ 16418/17 and PQ 18095/17 – I am confident that the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is pursuing the optimal strategy in its management of this debt.

The NTMA has already taken numerous steps to significantly reduce the refinancing requirement in the coming years.

It continues to pre-fund ahead of future obligations and to build up significant cash balances.  These balances stood at over €15.5 billion at end-April meaning that in effect the October 2017 bond redemption has already been funded. It expects to enter 2018 with approximately €10 billion in cash balances.

It has executed bilateral bond switches – redeeming early short-term bonds in exchange for longer-term bonds – and reduced the bond refinancing requirement by over €2.5 billion.

It has taken advantage of the opportunities presented by lower borrowing costs and actively lengthened the maturity of Ireland’s debt. The result is that today Ireland has one of the longest average public debt maturities in Europe.

The NTMA has also accelerated the buy-back of the Floating Rate Notes. While this doesn’t reduce the refinancing requirement in the short-to-medium term, it is locking in the current low market interest rates. In effect, the NTMA is taking out insurance against rates rising into the future.

The net impact of all the actions by the NTMA, including the early repayment of over €18 billion of IMF loans, has been to reduce the size of the refinancing obligation over the period out to the end of 2020 from €70 billion to closer to €40 billion, when account is taken of cash balances.

I am satisfied that the steps taken by the NTMA leave the Exchequer in a healthy position to fund the refinancing requirement over the period October 2017 to October 2020.