Ireland paid at least €709m in interest to UK for bailout loan

Britain's bar on early repayment helped make it one of the most lucrative state-to-state loans ever advanced 

According to 'Irish Examiner' calculations based on a UK interim report published in October, Ireland will have paid at least £610m in interest to the UK over the course of the loan. Picture: Gareth Chaney

Ireland has paid at least £610m (€709m) in interest on the 2011 bilateral bailout loan it got from Britain, making it one of the most lucrative "no-risk" loans ever advanced by the UK to a sovereign government, the Irish Examiner can reveal. 

It comes as finance minister Paschal Donohoe said today that the National Treasury Management Agency had made the last instalment payment on the £3.2bn (€3.7bn) loan which was struck as part of the overall €67.5bn international bailout the State needed in the wake of the devasting banking and property crash of over a decade ago.