The national debt is standing at £28.3 billion - significantly below the £30.69 billion recorded at the end of last year, according to the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, Dr Michael Somers.

If the level of debt identified by Dr Somers stays even close to this figure over the next three weeks, it points to a surplus on the Exchequer finances at the end of 1998 significantly above the Minister for Finance's estimate of £668 million on Budget day last week.

Dr Somers revealed that the NTMA is set to announce savings of £200 million on the target level of servicing the national debt, when it presents its annual accounts at the end of the month.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Dr Somers criticised the Department of Finance and the Central Bank, which he partly blamed for holding up progress in developing the bond market post-monetary union and being reluctant to accept change.

Dr Somers revealed that the NTMA will be changing the participants in its primary dealers' group. The group, which has contracts with the NTMA and guarantees to quote buy-and-sell prices on Government bonds, is made up of the top four Irish brokers as well as Credit Suisse, First Boston and UBS. "The current non-Irish primary dealers have not been doing a lot of business and we are talking to a number of French and German institutions who will take over from them," Dr Somers said.

According to Dr Somers the debt has been around £28.5 billion ever since he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee in September. These debt figures suggest that the estimate in the Budget for the surplus of Exchequer revenue over spending this year will be too low.

A sharp fall in the debt indicates that the Exchequer is running a large surplus. The Government would need to spend an improbably large sum of more than £1 billion over the next three weeks if the Budget estimate were to come in on target, according to Dr Dan McLaughlin, chief economist at ABN-Amro.

The figures mean that this year's surplus announced only last week is probably already redundant, he said.

If the Department has underestimated this year's revenue figures it will make it easier for the Government to achieve its 1999 target, as the starting financial position will be that much stronger.

Separately, Dr Somers launched a broadside at the Department of Finance as well as the Irish and European central banks.

However, he said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had always been extremely supportive and encouraging about all developments at the agency.

But Dr Somers pointed the finger at the Department of Finance and the Central Bank for their reluctance to embrace change, which, he argued, was holding back the development of the Irish Government bond market as well as much other infrastructure.

"We would still be wallowing in debt, being ripped off by the financial institutions if Finance were still in charge of the debt," he said.

He accused the Department of blocking tax changes which would encourage investment in bonds and other changes to allow the market to become more liquid.

He added that the Minister needed to be strong to resist the all-pervading influence of the public servants, who were becoming more powerful. "It is also hard to get them to be answerable," he said.

Dr Somers is slightly suspicious of central banks as they are not democratically accountable.

"The ECB are a law unto themselves, and should be subject to some democratic control. It is quite extraordinary that they are not properly answerable as should the Central Bank be here. The new President of the ECB simply issues edicts as if from Mount Olympus."