Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. We know the Department of Finance and its associated agencies, such as the NTMA and the Financial Regulator, have committed approximately €23 million over the period of the banking crisis. We know, as the Minister has just said, that this has so far involved fees to Arthur Cox of €1.6 million in 2008 and a further €8.4 million covering 2009 and 2010; PricewaterhouseCoopers seems to have got at least €3.8 million; Jones Lange LaSalle seem to have got at least €1 million which we know of so far; and Merrill Lynch got €7.3 million. This all adds up to approximately €23 million to date. The Minister also referred to further consultants, HSBC and Rothschilds, who got the Merrill Lynch contract. In addition, the Minister announced in the NAMA draft business plan that he intends to spend €240 million a year on consultancy, some of which would go into the banks and much of which would go into the private firms in regard to legal affairs, accountancy, auctioneering, valuation and so on.

Does the Minster understand that this amount of fees is staggering? I would like to know how the 8% is calculated. I have not seen any evidence that the Merrill Lynch fee income to the Department has actually been reduced by 8% or, indeed, that the accountants and the various other banks have actually reduced their fees by a real 8%. Is there a tender document which the 8% is knocked off? We have not seen any actual evidence.

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