Although this financing arrangement continues for the time being; still, from the market’s point of view, the lack of any explicit commitment to long-term low cost financing of IBRC’s cash needs no doubt has represented one of the obstacles to Ireland regaining market access on the necessary scale in the immediate future.
As it can be seen, and perhaps contrary to public perception, overall government debt levels went down in the first years of Monetary Union, that is, in the period 1999 until 2007, by around 5.6%. Notably, we can see significant reductions in Italy (-14.8%), Spain (-35.3%), and Ireland (-10%).