Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Committee on Housing and Homelessness

National Treasury Management Agency and Department of Finance

10:30 am

Mr. Eoin Dorgan:

One needs to be very careful with on-balance sheet borrowing. That is the point we are making. Rates can change very quickly and we have had very recent experience of that. In terms of EUROSTAT and the French model, there is not a definitive view on whether that is on or off-balance sheet. The way it is structured looks like an attempt to bring it off-balance sheet. We have to work within the rules and assume that we can so long as we adhere to the regulations. As Mr. Palmer pointed out, there is this catch-all. That is why the commercial return is such a key element of putting forward a proposition, because it does illustrate that it is a commercial return, although it may not be a market return, and that is allowable in terms of delivering on housing or another element of key capital infrastructure for the State.

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