Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Finance if the National Assets Management Agency used public relations consultants; and if so the amount of money that has been spent on public relations. [9299/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), while a statutory body in its own right, operates under the aegis of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and, in common with the NTMA's other business functions, it draws on the NTMA's shared services in a number of areas including the press office facility. The NTMA does not have an internal press office. Instead, the NTMA's Communications Officer is supported by the resources of an external service provider (appointed following a public procurement process) in order to offer a full press office service (including out-of-hours contacts for the media) across all the NTMA's business areas.

The NTMA has not traditionally had a dedicated press office but decided to put these arrangements in place during 2010 in light of a significant increase in the volume of domestic and international media queries being received by the NTMA and other associated bodies such as NAMA. The NTMA paid €185,000 (inc. VAT) to this service provider during 2010.

In addition to NAMA, this press office facility serves the NTMA in its debt management role and also in relation to its other business areas which are the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), the State Claims Agency (SCA) and the NTMA's delegated banking system functions.