National debt ‘set to hit €173bn’

IRELAND’S national debt is set to hit €173bn by the end of the year, an average of €81,519 for every worker in the State, according to Bank of Ireland chief economist Dan McLaughlin.

Yesterday, the bank’s economic research unit published its monthly analysis of international and Irish markets.

In it Mr McLaughlin said that Ireland’s gross national debt stood at €110bn at the end of 2010, with €90bn in the form of government bonds.