14-07-2025
NTMA benchmark bond issuance totalled €6bn in 2024
The National Treasury Management Agency's (NTMA) benchmark bond issuance in 2024 totalled €6bn, with the average annual bond issuance from 2022 to 2024 being less than €7bn.
Publishing its mid-year review and annual report, the agency said the €7bn compares with an annual average of almost €20bn for the period 2019 to 2021.
The bond issuance in 2024 was at a weighted average yield of 2.7% and a weighted average maturity of 11.6 years.
Despite higher marginal funding costs in recent years, Ireland's debt interest bill has remained stable, standing at €3.2bn in 2024, almost 60% below its 2013 peak.
Limited issuance in recent years, coupled with the fact that almost all of Ireland's existing debt is at fixed interest rates, means the interest bill is likely to remain relatively stable in the near term, the NTMA said.
The agency reported a total of €30bn in cash and liquid assets at its half-year point, which reduces the requirement for borrowing in the coming years.
So far in 2025, the NTMA has issued €5.25bn in benchmark bonds, including a new 30-year bond maturing in 2055. The weighted average yield of issuance was 3.07% with a weighted average maturity of 21.9 years.
ISIF
The Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which is managed by the NTMA, recently marked 10 years since its establishment, having generated €2.9bn of accumulated returns since inception to end-2024, an annualised return of 3.4% per annum.
The fund made 35 investments totalling over €1.6bn in 2024, bringing total ISIF commitments to €8.8bn across 248 investments and €12.6bn of co-investment commitments since inception, a co-investment multiple of 1.4 times.
So far in 2025, ISIF has closed a further €800m in investments across its key themes of climate, scaling indigenous businesses, housing and enabling investments and food and agriculture.
Meanwhile, the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, which was established in July 2024, had combined assets of approximately €10.5bn at year-end, following initial contributions from the National Surplus.
Following the recent receipt of further Exchequer contributions, the combined assets of the Funds are now approximately €13.5bn, and are expected to be over €16bn by end-2025.
'Ireland is well-positioned against the backdrop of uncertain markets," said chief executive of the NTMA, Frank O'Connor.
"There is a strong market awareness of the buffers we have in place through our Funding and Debt Management strategy – the strength of our public finances, coupled with the long weighted average maturity of our debt, means we expect to have relatively low borrowing requirements in the short to medium term.
"We are also benefiting from locking in the low interest rates in previous years, with the debt interest cost in 2024 of €3.2bn being almost 60% less than its peak over a decade ago. The interest bill is likely to remain relatively stable over the next few years."
Phishing attack
Mr O'Connor also said the state investment agency will review its security protocols after losing €5m in a phishing attack.
The scam was discovered last week after staff at the €17bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a sovereign development fund that the agency also runs, expressed concern about a payment made to what they thought was an investee company.
Instead, it was found that they had received a fraudulent payment request from a third party designed to look like a legitimate request from the existing investee company at the time of an expected drawdown of funds, Mr O'Connor said at a conference on Monday.
