In relation to the ranking of debt obligations between Government bonds, promissory note repayments and State guaranteed bank bonds, section 48 of the Finance Act 1978 provides the following: "To remove doubt, it is hereby declared that any liabilities of the Minister for Finance, or of any other Minister of the Government with the consent of the Minister for Finance, of the due repayment of moneys borrowed by persons shall rank, and shall be deemed always to have ranked, pari passu in all respects with the liabilities of the Minister for Finance in respect of securities created and issued under section 54(1) of the Finance Act 1970."
In relation to the National Roads Authority (NRA), under the Roads Act, 1993 the NRA may issue debt guaranteed by the Minister for Finance which would rank equally with all other debt obligations issued by the Minister or guaranteed by him. However, unguaranteed obligations of the NRA are not obligations of the State. It is not that they "rank" differently from those of the Minister, they are simply not his obligations and as such there is no equivalence between an NRA obligation and a bond issued under Section 54(1) of the Finance Act 1970 above.