Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has borrowed €4bn at the record low interest rate of 0.867 percent. Bids of over €5.75bn had been received for the available bonds before 11am this morning.

Bond yields fell sharply across the euro zone in 2014. Strong economic growth has made Irish yields particularly low. This year Ireland plans to issue long-term bonds worth between €12bn and €15bn.

Ireland previously raised €3.75bn selling 15-year bonds at the record low rate of 2.49 percent in November of last year.

The Government plans to use the bond market to raise cheap funds to replace costly loans issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the financial crisis. The interest rate on the money that Ireland borrowed from the IMF is close to 5 percent. The country already repaid €9bn of these loans in December.

Ireland previously raised €3.75bn of the funds used for that payment by selling 15-year bonds at the record-low yield of 2.49 percent in November.

Barclays, Davy, HSBC, JP Morgan, Nomura and Royal Bank of Scotland were selected as joint lead managers for the issue.