The Minister for Finance Michael McGrath TD welcomed S&P’s upgrade of Ireland’s long-term sovereign credit rating from AA- to AA with a stable outlook. The last time Ireland was rated as highlight was in August 2010 and is the third highest ranking the S&P can give.
Ireland’s credit rating is now aligned with core Eurozone countries France and Belgium. In addition, there are only five EU Member States with a higher rating - Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Finland.
Commenting on the recent ranking, Minister McGrath noted:
“The announcement by S&P of an upgrade to Ireland’s sovereign credit rating, coming just 4 weeks after an upgrade by Moody’s, is a further vote of confidence in the Irish economy and the management of the public finances.
I am determined that the progress we are making in putting the public finances on a sound long term footing will be further advanced in the period ahead. A total of €6 billion has now been transferred to the National Reserve Fund to strengthen our fiscal buffers and I recently published a departmental paper setting out high level principles regarding a more long-term focused savings fund.
While I am confident we will have resources from recurring tax revenues to reduce the burden of income tax, increase core welfare payments, invest in public services and our infrastructure, in Budget 2024 and beyond, we have a once in a generation opportunity to use some of the windfall receipts to put the nation’s finances on a more sustainable, long-term footing.
This will be an important initiative to secure the future wellbeing of our economy and society and will require bringing legislation to the Oireachtas setting out how such a fund will be built up and the circumstances in which we will draw on it. Work on this by my officials is continuing and I intend to bring a more detailed proposal to Government for consideration in the coming weeks.
The publication of the Summer Economic Statement will provide detail on the government’s approach to managing the forecast budget surplus and how we can maximise the long-term benefit for society.”
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