Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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81. To ask the Minister for Finance the measures being taken to refinance the outstanding obligations into long-term debt of the State in view of the historically low borrowing costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13672/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has taken advantage of the favourable funding and interest rate environment of recent years to lengthen the maturity of the National Debt and lock-in the benefit of low interest rates.  

Since the turn of 2015, the NTMA has issued €90 billion of medium- to long-term debt. This was issued in the form of standard benchmark bonds, green bonds, inflation-linked bonds and ultra long-term (circa 50–100 year) private placements. This €90 billion of funding had an average maturity of circa 14 years and an average rate of less than 1%. It included two new 30-year bonds, a new 20-year bond and two new 15-year bonds.

Debt refinancing “chimneys” over the four year period 2017–2020 that had, at one point, stood at some €70 billion have effectively been eliminated. By contrast, the refinancing requirement over the next four years 2021–2024 is far lower, at just over €27 billion.

Over €23bn of EU-IMF Programme debt in the form of loans from the IMF and the Danish and Swedish bilateral loans was repaid in full and ahead of schedule.

Large cash balances – presently around the €30 billion mark – have been built up and these can be used to part-fund the deficit and repay maturing debt.

Furthermore, the purchase of €17 billion of Floating Rate Notes from the Central Bank of Ireland since late 2014 and their replacement with medium- to long-term fixed rate bonds protects the state against future interest rate rises. This is ahead of the minimum schedule; a strategy driven by the low interest rate environment of recent years.