The Minister for Finance is hopeful of lowering our national debt to 100% of GDP next year - bringing it closer to the euro zone average of 95%.
Yesterday, the National Treasury Management Agency - the body that looks after our debt and borrowings - issued its annual report.
The agency was keen to put distance between Ireland and the so-called Mediterranean countries.
Alan McQuaid, economist with Merrion Stockbrokers, acknowledged that every country's borrowing costs had fallen but ours were now much lower than the periphery economies.
"We're much lower than Portugal and Spain, but we're not quite as low as France and Belgium. The fundamentals have improved dramatically here. We've growth figures for the first quarter due out next week and we're expected to have the fastest growing economy in the euro zone again this year," he explained.
Mr McQuaid added: "The key issue now for the NTMA is to extend the duration of our debt. They have recently issued 30 and 15-year bonds, bringing the average maturity on our debt from 7.3 years at the end of 2012 to 13 years now."
He also pointed out that a number of so-called “debt chimneys” - where a large amount of debt falls due at the same time - were coming up in the coming years.
"We've got €60bn to pay back between 2016 and 2020. The NTMA is keen to point out that we're going to have to implement switching opportunities. There's no reason why we can't achieve this but there are a number of issues on the horizon that could potentially weigh on performance such as Greece, China, a potential Brexit and interest rate increases in the US."
He said quantitative easing would remain supportive of bond yields but he suspected that the ECB may have to stay in the game longer than they are saying now. The policy is due to end in September next year.
***
Coffee chain Starbucks has reported net income of just under $627m - a 22% increase on a year earlier.
US sales grew 8%, mostly on mobile ordering, which has been introduced on a trial basis in 4,000 stores.
Shares rose 4.4% in after hours trading to just above $59.
***
Cerberus Capital Management is understood to have bought the final tranche of Ulster Bank's Project Finn, paying £225m for the Irish residential mortgage pool.
That comprises around 2,000 separate borrowers and it completes the three-tier sale to separate buyers in the last 48 hours.
RBS confirmed yesterday that Deutsche Bank and Apollo Global Management won the largest tranche - the commercial real estate loan tranche - for £400m.
