ULYSSES, the special purpose" company set up by the National Treasury Management Agency to securitise part of the State's portfolio of local authority loans, has issued another £50 million worth of stock to domestic and overseas investors.

This follows the initial £140 million worth of Ulysses stock issued last year to cover the cost of meeting social welfare back payments. The latest £50 million tranche is to meet outstanding arrears of the social welfare back payments.

Legislation to allow the securitisation of the initial £190 million worth of local authority loans was passed by the Oireachtas last year. If the Government wishes to securitise any more of the loans - £250 million worth remains on the local loans book - it will require another enabling vote in the Dail.

It is understood the Department of Finance has taken no decision on this outstanding £250 million, but market sources believe that it might be an enticing source of funds to meet once off costs such as the Hepatitis C compensation payments. The attraction of securitisation is that the funds obtained do not form part of the exchequer borrowing requirement.

The sale fetched a price of 0.23 of a percentage point over the yield on 10 year Government gilts.