Results 12,001-12,020 of 34,618 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Yes. The next question we asked is whether the use of the NAMA surplus would require EU clearance because it would have to be done within EUROSTAT rules and we were told that no discussions had taken place with Europe yet. We asked what Europe's position was expected to be. The Department said that there is no other NAMA or anything like it in Europe so it does not believe Europe has even...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: NAMA will be before the committee on the first occasion on which we meet after the recess.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: I will ask a few questions myself. I use the word "few" lightly. I will start with the national debt. I have the report in front of me. I will ask Mr. McCarthy to confirm some information that is out there and we can comment on it. I want to give the people who are watching a full and clear picture. They get bits and pieces from different questions but I like to give the overall view....

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Moving on to page 13, the debt, cash balances and gross debt are shown. I note the cash balances the agency is holding seem to have declined in recent years. In 2012, there was €50 billion in cash balances. All the figures are not given on that page, but I note from the chart the cash balances now held are only half of that amount. It would probably cost the agency to hold cash...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: I will come to those.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: That is 5% of the agency's debt?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: When we had a difficulty accessing the market, essentially during the three years when the troika were here, 2011 to 2013, we were sitting on in excess of €50 billion in cash reserves. The agency thought we needed to have that because we might not have been able to raise such funds down the road. The troika came for a three-year period. Mr. O'Kelly might tell me if I am right in my...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Cash balances or other assets.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: What are the "other assets" referenced in page 13? The light green segment of the chart states "cash balances or other assets". Does that refer to bank shares?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: This is an NTMA document. The witnesses must be able to tell me to what that chart is referring.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: The bank shares would have been worth very little. What does Mr. O'Kelly mean by liquid assets other than cash? This is the agency's chart. There seems to quite an amount shown in the green segment of it during 2012 and 2013.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: The agency needs to come back to us on this. This is its annual report. The witnesses should know these charts off by heart given that they have inserted them in it. I ask that they send us a detailed note explaining that. If a member of the public's reading of this report was similar to my reading of it, they would take from that chart that we were awash with cash all during the troika...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: I am reading-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: From 2012 the figures go from €150 billion up to €200 billion. There is at least €50 billion in debt in that. We had the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, at that time. Will Mr. O'Kelly come back to us on this and explain that? On the face of it, it looks as if we had far more cash when we all thought we were broke.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: I have turned over the page and in respect of funding and maturities, it looks as if approximately €50 billion in funds are due to mature in the period from 2018 to 2020 and €10 billion has been included there. Is Mr. O'Kelly comfortable the agency can meet that? There is quite an amount in maturities coming up in 2019 and 2020.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Mr. O'Kelly spoke about rising interest rates.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Okay. Is that the current cash balance? I know this annual report covers up to the end of December last year. Has the agency's cash balance gone up a lot this year?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Mr. O'Kelly needs to send us a chart in respect of the period of the chart on page 13 of the annual report showing us the cash balances then and the current cash balances.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Mr. O'Kelly said the agency's cash balance has increased quite an amount in the past six months.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts (Resumed)
Chapter 23: Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency (Resumed)
National Treasury Management Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (12 Jul 2018)

Seán Fleming: Mr. O'Kelly might send us that information in order that we would have a reasonable understanding of it. I read an article carrying the headline "Gordon MRM keeps €480k PR deal with NTMA". It states "Gordon MRM has beaten away competition to retain the prestigious public relations account with the National Treasury Management Agency". What does it do for that €480,000?...