Vol. 476 No. 6
10 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Finance his views on whether the National Treasury Management Agency should take over the management of huge borrowings that pass through Departments from the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4368/97]
With the exception of borrowing to fund payments made under various FEOGA schemes pending reimbursement by the EU, all borrowing by the Government in connection with EU transfers is already managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. FEOGA-related borrowings are currently managed by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry. In April 1996, a Value for Money Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the borrowing activities of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry for FEOGA purposes was published. While the report concluded that the borrowing and associated risks were managed quite well by the Department, it did recommend, inter alia, that consideration be given to the involvement of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) to a much greater extent in the management of the borrowings involved.
Since then I have had discussions with my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, on the feasibility of transferring the treasury management functions of FEOGA to the NTMA. A critical factor in considering the implementation of such a change is its impact on the various budgetary aggregates, particularly on the Maastricht measure of general Government debt, to which it could add more than 1 percentage point. As consideration of this impact was being hindered by a lack of clarity in the relevant EU accounting conventions, clarification was sought from the EU Commission last year. However, it was only last month that the Commission's statistical service, Eurostat, published details of a decision covering the classification of bodies acting on behalf of the European Communities, including FEOGA. Unfortunately, that decision did not answer all our queries regarding the Intervention Agency and further clarification is currently being sought from Eurostat. In the meantime, the implications of the decision already handed down by Eurostat are being actively considered by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the NTMA.
