DUBLIN, April 14 (Reuters) - Irish unemployment will remain above pre-pandemic levels until at least 2025, reflecting some scarring from the crisis that will see national debt peak among the highest levels in the developed world, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. While Ireland’s economy has kept growing during COVID-19 thanks to its large and relatively pandemic-proof multinational sector, one of Europe’s toughest lockdown regimes is set to keep average unemployment at 16.3% in 2021, the ministry predicted. Unemployment is set to fall to an average rate of 8.2% next year as economic activity fully returns to normal and dip to 5.5% by 2025, the furthest year new economic numbers published on Wednesday forecast to. The average rate in 2019, before the pandemic hit, stood at 5% A huge increase in government spending to keep businesses and employees afloat will increase the national debt to 111.8% of modified gross national income (GNI*) this year before steadily falling year-on-year to 100.1% by 2025. Ireland’s debt, which rocketed during a banking and fiscal crash a decade ago, stood at 95.6% of GNI* in 2019. Ireland uses a modified measure to strip out some of the ways its large hub of multinational firms can distort gross domestic product (GDP). The updated forecasts also predict that the state’s finances will remain in deficit to 2025, when the budget deficit will be cut to just 0.2% of GDP from the 5% recorded last year. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alison Williams)