Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach asked me what I was referring to. I was just explaining that it was the National Treasury Management Agency, which was established initially to manage the national debt. It has acquired a number of very important areas since then. Even insurance was added when we got into difficulties in that area. Now, the new development finance agency involving certain dimensions of infrastructural projects for the future is included and so on. Is it because the NTMA is free to employ top-flight personnel at the market rate and, therefore, we can entrust tasks to it that could not be done within the Civil Service any longer? If that is the conclusion, it seems to me to have certain implications for this debate.

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