Mr. John Hogan:

There are two aspects to it. If we think back to the banking inquiry, one of the criticisms of the Department was that we did not have sufficient corporate finance and market expertise or understanding of what was happening in the financial system, which would have been of benefit to the Department when we came to the financial crisis. What the NTMA secondment has allowed us to do is bring in that expertise. The Deputy is right; as the shareholding declines, it raises issues for us in terms of what is the appropriate level of support and resources that are needed against that. Over time, we are going to continue to draw on the NTMA arrangement to support, for example, the banking division or financial services investment fund division in the work they do. It is very much that advisory piece that is probably going to grow as the shareholding piece declines.

The other aspect to it all is that we have Department staff working alongside people from the NTMA to enable the market expertise to be shared more broadly and to align with the public service principles.