Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapters 15 and 16
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 16
National Treasury Management Agency - Financial Statements 2020

9:30 am

Mr. Conor O'Kelly:

The pandemic stabilisation and recovery fund can provide capital across the capital structure. It can lend money, which it has done in terms of debt instruments, and it can also put equity into these companies if that is what is required. It can do something in between - a convertible equity loan - whatever the company might need. The real attraction of the ISIF as opposed to a credit lending institution is that it can go across the risk capital spectrum, which very often is required, particularly in difficult circumstances. The second thing to say is that as mandated in legislation, the ISIF has a commercial bottom line and must produce a commercial return so we must act commercially. We would not necessarily compete on price with other commercial entities.