Financial markets scrambled Wednesday to bid for European Union-backed bonds issued to rescue Ireland's finances, demanding three times as much value as the bloc issued, DPA reported.
The EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have pledged to lend Ireland 67.5 billion euros (90 billion dollars) to help keep the government afloat. The EU's executive, the European Commission, went to the markets on Wednesday to raise 5 billion towards that sum.
Demand for the issue was three times higher than supply and the bidding process lasted just one hour, a commission spokeswoman told journalists in Brussels.
The move had been widely anticipated, as the commission has pledged to raise 22.5 billion euros in total towards the Irish bailout.
The loans come accompanied by strict conditions on budget discipline and spending reductions. Each slice of EU money will only be dished out once Ireland has proven that it is living up to its side of the bargain.