Generations to come will foot the State’s “mountain of debt” which currently stands at €205 billion, according to the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
And taxpayers have already paid €60 billion in interest on the mammoth bill in the last decade.
CEO of the NTMA, Conor O’Kelly said: “Ireland is not in a good position from a debt point of view.
“We have paid €33 billion in interest over the last five years. This interest bill is enormous.
“We paid €60 billion in interest over the last decade. That compares to €20 billion in the previous decade.
“That is all to do with the elevated amount of debts rather than the rate of interest which a lot of people concentrate on.”
Mr O’Kelly told the Public Accounts Committee that Ireland relies on foreign capital for 90% of its borrowings.
He pointed out this is “unusual” for European and global sovereigns.
He said this leaves us “slightly more vulnerable than others in relation to financial markets.”
He said that Ireland’s gross debt has remained unchanged since the financial crisis and stands at €205 billion.
And that figure is “four times what it was in the 2000s and I describe this as a mountain of debt.”
He added: “There is only one way to get down a mountain and it is very slowly and very carefully and not take any alternative routes and not to go back up the mountain.
“We have to try and find a way to reduce this debt over time.
“It will only happen very slowly but we have got to stick to the path and do that because the risks to the country of having very high debt levels are the risks that any household or business would have of carrying high risk.”
Reacting to the news, People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett said the interest the State has paid over the last 10 years shows we will be “haunted by toxic debt forever.”
He said: “It really beggars belief that €60 billion that could be used to provide housing, healthcare and vital public services has, instead, been spent on interest on our national debt.
“So here we are a decade after the crash and still ordinary people are paying the price of the greed of bankers and speculators.
“If there is any kind of hiccup in the economy internationally interest rates may go up and our repayments would cause even more money being sucked out of local services, infrastructure projects and the pockets of working people and into repayments.
“Even at this late stage the government should be demanding a write down of the debt.”
