Ireland taps airline chief Walsh for debt agency as bailout exit nears

By Sam Cage

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland appointed airline chief Willie Walsh to its government debt agency on Monday, securing the former British Airways boss's broad experience as it returns to financial markets following a 85 billion euro bailout.

Walsh, now chief executive of British Airways' parent International Airlines Group , will become chairman of the National Treasury Management Agency's (NTMA) board of directors once a law approving the board's creation has been passed early next year.

The board will be charged with setting broad targets for debt management and the agency's investment strategy. John Corrigan will remain Chief Executive of NTMA.

Ireland will not issue any more bonds this year as it has cash on hand, but will need to show it can fund itself regularly on international markets after it becomes the first euro zone state to exit a bailout in December.

IAG, which also owns Iberia, said the appointment would not affect Walsh's role at the airline operator.

"Willie Walsh is an ideal candidate for the role ... given his position as a global business leader, his extensive experience of corporate change, and his equity and financial market experience," Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in a statement.

Walsh, born in Dublin in 1961 and an MBA graduate of the well-respected Trinity College, Dublin, was a pilot for Aer Lingus before rising to become chief executive of the Irish carrier. He moved to British Airways as chief executive and was then appointed CEO of IAG on its creation in 2011.

Noonan is meeting IMF officials this week as Ireland considers leaving its bailout without a financing backstop from its international lenders.

That would block it from accessing the European Central Bank's as-yet-unused programme of government bond purchases but it would also reduce the conditions and close monitoring by European officials, bolstering Dublin's claim to have restored economic sovereignty lost by the previous government in 2010.

"The game plan is pretty well laid out, there is no bond supply until year-end and they are pre-funded for next year," said David Schnautz, rate strategist at Commerzbank in New York

"The decision on the credit line is on the government side and the debt agency has only a consulting role."

(Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia and Brenda Goh in London; Editing by Susan Fenton)