Ireland's finance minister said earlier on Tuesday that he had ordered the debt agency to complete the early repayment.

"We are hoping to target the third and final payment this month, it could happen as early as Friday week," said Frank O'Connor, head of funding at the National Treasury Management Agency.

O'Connor said funds from the 2013 repayment of preference shares from Bank of Ireland (>> Bank of Ireland) and the sale of contingent capital notes in permanent tsb (>> Permanent tsb Group Holdings PLC) may be used to help pay the final 5.5 billion euro payment.

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins)

Stocks treated in this article : Bank of Ireland, Permanent tsb Group Holdings PLC