Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 172: To ask the Minister for Finance the details of the advisory service provided to his Department by a company (details supplied); when this relationship was first established; the nature of the investigations being carried out by the company into the banking sector here; the way these investigations supplement, duplicate and differ from similar investigations being carried out by another company; when the company's investigations are due to conclude; if the results will be published; if there is a sunset clause on the contract; the amount the contract has cost his Department to date and on an annual basis; the advice received from the company with respect to recapitalisation of the banking sector here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40792/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The advisory service referred to by the Deputy was contracted at my request by the National Treasury Management Agency in September 2008, under the powers set out in the National Treasury Management Agency Act 1990, to assist the Government by providing general, strategic and specific technical advice on the Irish banking sector.

The contract extends to provide advice as required for a period of two years up to the end of the Banks Guarantee Scheme. The details of the contract were negotiated between the Agency and the company concerned. I am advised that the company was retained for an initial fee of €2 million to exclusively advise the Government over the two year period of the contract. This fee should be considered in the context of covered institutions paying fees of €1 billion over the period of the guarantee. The Deputy will appreciate that any advice received by me under this contract would be extremely commercially and market sensitive and will not be published.

This work differs considerably from the work by the other company referred to which has been carrying out a review for the Financial Regulator of the credit risk and lending profiles of the covered financial institutions from a prudential perspective.