The head of the Ireland's debt agency has said that market concerns about the imminent funding challenges facing Irish banks are 'overdone'.
National Treasury Management Agency Chief Executive John Corrigan said the authorities stand ready to make up any shortfalls.
'We've characterised concerns around that like the millennium bug,' Mr Corrigan told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dublin today.
'We all thought the planes were going to fall out of the sky, the trains were going to stop, the clocks weren't going to work,' he said.
'Institutional support is there if necessary to meet the pressures that may arise,' Corrigan added.
Meanwhile, the cost of the country's borrowing continued to climb higher today.
The rate of interest demanded by investors for Irish Government ten year bonds rose to 6.609% in mid-morning trade.
This compares with a rate of 2.267% for German bonds, as the spread between the two rose to a euro lifetime high of over 4.3 percentage points.
