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Consultancy Contracts
201 Deputy Brian Hayes asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a comprehensive report on a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3703/11]
Comment on this
The table sets out the list of payments made in respect of external advice given to my Department since taking office in 2008, including advice provided to my Department through the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank and all agencies under the NTMA umbrella.
Central Bank and Financial Regulator
The Central Bank and Financial Regulator incurred the following advisory costs:
The Central Bank and Financial Regulator are self-financing institutions. Accordingly the costs incurred are included for information only and do not represent a cost to the taxpayer. The Central Bank has advised my Department that they are not in a position to divulge individual consultant details/costs due to client confidentiality arrangements.
In addition to the above, the following costs were incurred in respect of reports commissioned by the Consumer Panel:
*The objectives of the due diligence exercise which the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission had carried out at the request of the Minister for Finance in respect of Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks plc (AIB) were to form judgements with respect to the probability of each bank's core Tier 1 Capital being above the regulatory minimum at end 2011 and to identify any matters or issues which might be considered of a "red flag" nature.
Sir Andrew Large, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, was engaged as a "trusted advisor" on certain aspects of the due diligence process including the judgements to be made in the light of the final reports because of his specialist expertise in the banking area. Sir Andrew also had a significant input into setting the scope of the due diligence exercises and in working with the NTMA in monitoring PwC and Arthur Cox as the due diligence exercises progressed.
It should also be noted that the NPRF received arrangement fees of €60 million (€30 million from each bank) in respect of these transactions.