The State has completed payment on a £3.2 billion (€3.7 billion) bilateral loan from Britain which it secured as part of the €67.5 billion EU-IMF bailout programme at the height of the financial crisis.
The Republic had already repaid €22.5 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan facility, with this paid ahead of schedule . It also made full early repayments of loans from Sweden and Denmark of €6 million and €4 million respectively in late 2017.
Some €40.9 billion is still owed as part of the bailout programme however with €18.4 billion owed to the European Financial Stability Facility, and €22.5 billion to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).
The State agreed to the €67.5 billion EU-IMF bailout programme at the end of 2010 as a result of the banking crisis that led to the State paying €41.7 billion to bail out Irish banks.
Tranches
"I welcome the completion of the repayment of the UK bilateral loan today. This repayment marks the completion of another step along our journey since exiting the EU-IMF financial assistance programme in December 2013," said Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.
The loan from Britain was disbursed in eight equal tranches of £403 million over the period October 2011 to September 2013. Each tranche was repayable 7.5 years after disbursement with the final tranche was repaid today.
The State did not seek to repay the British loan early as it was a fixed-rate agreement meaning there would have been break costs involved if it had done.
The loans agreed as part of the bailout included €22.5 billion from the IMF, €22.5 billion from the EFSM and €22.5 billion from the EFSF, which included the combined €4.8 billion in bilateral loans from the UK, Sweden and Denmark.
