Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The National Treasury Management Agency is a complex organisation with multiple functions that extend beyond its original and core role in managing Ireland's national debt. Its functions were expanded and reorganised under the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014. The revised structure of the NTMA following the amendment is outlined on the screen in front of members, on which they can see the myriad functions of the agency. A distinction must be drawn to their attention. The agency provides staffing and services in support of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and the National Asset Management Agency. These two bodies have separate boards and their chief executives are the accountable persons for the activities of the agencies. Within the functions that fall under the National Treasury Management Agency there are a number of sets of financial statements which were presented this morning and which the committee noted when it was looking at the accounts and statements presented.

The NTMA's primary function is to manage borrowing on behalf of the State. The results of that borrowing activity are reported in the agency's national debt account each year. This account is also reproduced as Part 2 of the finance accounts which are published separately by the Department of Finance. The committee might wish to note that the national debt account does not reflect the total indebtedness of the State.

One of the objectives of chapter 2 of my annual report is to set national debt financial reporting in the context of overall or general Government debt, estimates of which are compiled by the Central Statistics Office. Other functions and services of the NTMA include management of compensation claims on behalf of certain State authorities through the State Claims Agency, the management of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and the provision of procurement and financial advice on certain public private partnerships and other large capital projects through the National Development Finance Agency. As I said, the NTMA also assigns staff and provides certain other services, on a reimbursement basis, for two independent bodies, that is, the National Asset Management Agency and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, which are governed by separate boards. The NTMA is not accountable for the activities of these bodies. It also provides staff on secondment for the banking unit in the Department of Finance, in which case the costs are carried by it.