Ireland will reach a European Union target of achieving a structural budget deficit of 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2020, according to a paper published by the Central Bank today.

The so-called EU fiscal compact budget rule is "relatively more binding in the Irish context than the debt rule," which requires debt in excess of 60 per cent of GDP to be reduced at an average one-twentieth per year, according to the paper by Laura Weymes and Colin Bermingham, economists at the Dublin-based bank.

Ireland would need an annual 3.6 per cent primary budget balance, which excludes debt interest payments, between 2016 and 2020 to reach the structural budget target, they said.

The economists expect that Ireland will be in compliance with the debt rule before it is expected to come into force in 2019.