Ireland Statutory interest on judgment debts (Courts Act rate)
Ireland Statutory interest on judgment debts (Courts Act rate) is 2 percent, in force since 1 Jan 2017. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Ireland's general statutory interest rate: a fixed 2% per annum on judgment debts under section 26 of the Debtors (Ireland) Act 1840 as varied by S.I. 624/2016, and the rate a court may award on a sum for the pre-judgment period under section 22 of the Courts Act 1981.
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| Current value | 2 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2017-01-01 |
| Official source | S.I. No. 624/2016, Courts Act 1981 (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 2016, art. 3: 'Section 26 (amended by the 1989 Order) of the Debtors (Ireland) Act 1840 is amended by the substitution of "2" for "8"', made under s. 20 of the Courts Act 1981, in operation 1 January 2017, revoking the 1989 Order; Courts Act 1981 s. 22(1): a judge 'may, if he thinks fit, also order the payment by the person of interest at the rate per annum standing specified for the time being in section 26 of the Debtors (Ireland) Act, 1840' |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
SCOPE — READ BEFORE USING: Ireland has no general statutory interest rate that a creditor can claim on an ordinary unpaid civil debt. The 2% is the JUDGMENT-DEBT rate under s. 26 of the Debtors (Ireland) Act 1840, and it is also the rate a court may — at its discretion — award under s. 22(1) of the Courts Act 1981 on the whole or part of a sum for the period between the accrual of the cause of action and judgment. Setter: the Minister for Justice by order under s. 20 of the Courts Act 1981, when satisfied that the existing rate ought to be varied 'having regard to the level of rates of interest generally in the State'. It is a discretionary ministerial act, not a formula, and has been exercised only twice in modern times — 8% from 1989 (S.I. 12/1989), 2% from 1 January 2017. FOUR TRAPS: (1) s. 22(2)(a) forbids interest on interest, so the rate is simple, never compounded. (2) s. 22(2)(b) disapplies the section entirely where interest is already payable as of right under an agreement or otherwise — a contractual interest clause displaces it. (3) s. 22(2)(e) bars pre-judgment interest on personal-injury or fatal-injury damages for post-judgment loss and for non-pecuniary loss. (4) STALE PUBLISHED FIGURE: the EU e-Justice Portal's Ireland interest-rate page still shows 8% and cites the 1989 Order, which S.I. 624/2016 revoked — do not rely on it. Commercial invoices are a separate product: the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 580/2012) give a business creditor the ECB main refinancing rate plus 8 percentage points, reset each half-year, on B2B and B2G debts — that regime is served in our late-payment-interest product. Retrieval note: irishstatutebook.ie returns 403 to automated fetchers unless a browser user-agent is sent.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ie/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ie/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/ie/statutory-interestOther Ireland series: Policy interest rate · Value added tax (VAT / Cáin Bhreisluacha) · National Minimum Wage (Íosphá Náisiúnta) · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (CPI, year-on-year) · Corporation tax · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax (income tax rate bands) · Statutory social-insurance contributions · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive) · VAT registration threshold
The same figure elsewhere: Italy · Latvia · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · all 34