Sir, – Further to Morgan Kelly's article "Our real economic crisis will begin if ECB credit stops" (Opinion and Analysis, March 14th), the National Treasury Management Agency did not sell bonds in December. The NTMA's last issuance of 2013 involved short-term treasury bills, not bonds, and took place in September.
More importantly, neither the treasury bills issued in September 2013 nor the bonds issued this year following Ireland’s exit from the EU/IMF programme were “bought entirely by the State-controlled (or effectively controlled) banks AIB and Bank of Ireland”. In fact, the majority of the issuance (approximately 80 per cent) was acquired internationally. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’NEILL,
National Treasury
Management Agency,
Treasury Building,
Grand Canal Street,
Dublin 2.