Ireland’s national debt explained: €210bn, who lends it and what it costs

How much the State owes, what that means per person, who lends Ireland the money, what the interest bill is and why the debt is set to rise again even with budget surpluses.

The Irish State owes about €38,000 for every person living here. That is the total debt of €209.9 billion at the end of 2025, divided by the population. The debt has now fallen four years in a row, but official forecasts say it will rise again.

The debt is €209.9 billion

The main measure is general government debt. It covers money owed by central government, local councils and some other State bodies. The CSO, the Central Statistics Office, put it at €209.9 billion at the end of 2025.

That is €25 billion below the peak at the end of 2021. The figure comes from the NTMA, the National Treasury Management Agency, which borrows money for the State.

Comparing debt with the size of the economy is tricky in Ireland. Large multinationals inflate GDP, so the NTMA says it is not a good guide. It uses GNI* instead: modified gross national income, a CSO measure that strips out some of those effects.

On that basis, debt was about 62% of GNI* at the end of 2025, using the CSO's April 2026 estimates. Net debt, which subtracts the State's cash and other financial assets, was €138.4 billion.

Who lends Ireland the money

The NTMA also counts the gross national debt. It is measured on a different basis, so it does not match the figure above. At the end of 2025 it was €232.2 billion, and the table shows where the money came from.

Most of the debt is government bonds. A bond is an IOU: investors lend the State money, get interest each year, and get their money back on a set date.

In 2025 the NTMA sold €8.5 billion of new bonds. On average they were lent for 18.7 years at a yield, or interest rate, of 3.08%. A €3 billion 30-year bond sold in January 2025 went 96% to investors outside Ireland.

The EU loans include €17.3 billion still owed to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, an EU lending fund.

State Savings products, such as Prize Bonds, are a way for ordinary savers to lend to the State. The State Savings website says these savings are 100% protected by the Irish State.

The interest bill is about €530 a person

The State paid €2.9 billion in interest in 2025. That works out at about €530 for every person in the country. In 2013, after the financial crash, the bill was €7.8 billion.

The bill stayed low because almost all of Ireland's debt is at fixed rates. The average rate is about 1.5%, the NTMA says.

New borrowing costs more than that. As old, cheap debt is paid off and replaced, the bill will climb.

Why the debt will rise again

The NTMA expects the debt to rise to "close to a quarter of a trillion euro". That is close to €250 billion.

This is happening while the budget is in surplus. In his Budget 2027 speech, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris forecast a surplus of €6.7 billion this year and €9.5 billion in 2027.

“Ireland's government debt is now set to rise by more than €35 billion by 2030.”— Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, Flash Release on Budget 2027, 6 October 2026

Part of the reason is that the State is saving and borrowing at the same time. It is putting large sums into two long-term funds.

Two State funds for the future

The Future Ireland Fund gets 0.8% of GDP each year from 2024 to 2035. It is meant to help pay for things like an ageing population from 2041 onwards. The Department of Finance says it could reach €100 billion by 2040.

The Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund gets €2 billion a year from 2024 to 2030. Up to 25% can be used in a downturn. From 2026, money can also go to climate and nature projects, up to €3.15 billion by 2030.

Budget 2027 adds an extra €1 billion to the Future Ireland Fund next year. That is on top of a planned transfer of around €4.8 billion.

What the Fiscal Council says

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is the State's independent budget watchdog. It published its first view of Budget 2027 on 6 October 2026. Its main points:

• Spending and tax changes rise by almost 9% in 2026 and at least 6% in 2027
• That is faster than the 5% a year it sees as sustainable
• The State spends about six of every seven euro of corporation tax
• Without excess corporation tax, deficits would reach €20 billion in a few years
• From next year, the State will in effect borrow to pay into its savings funds

Corporation tax comes from a small number of very large firms. We cover that in our piece on record corporation tax.

The Government's view, set out by Minister Harris on Budget day, is that the State needs to invest the rise in corporation tax "rather than rely upon them". He said surpluses will continue for the rest of the Government's term.