Irish banks' reliance on emergency funds from the European Central Bank fell in February.
New figures from the Central Bank show that banks had outstanding loans of €61.8 billion, down from €70.1 billion a month earlier.
The country's banks remain heavily dependent on emergency funding to run day-to-day.
But they have managed to reduce that reliance from a high of €187 billion in February 2011 by shrinking balance sheets and making a tentative return to capital markets.
