The legal services firm referred to by the Deputy have been engaged by my Department since September 2008 to provide advice in relation to general banking matters including those referred to in the Deputy's Question. In March 2010 certain banking system functions of the Minister for Finance were delegated by Government Order to the National Treasury Management Agency. The delegation of banking system functions to the NTMA ended in August 2011 with the secondment of the NTMA Banking Unit to the Department of Finance Banking Division's new Shareholding Management Unit. Following the transfer the NTMA continued to pay to the legal services firm professional fees incurred by the new Shareholding Management Unit to end 2011.
Professional fees paid to the legal services firm by my Department and the NTMA in relation to the issues raised by the Deputy are being collated and I will forward this information to the Deputy as soon as possible. The Deputy may wish to note that the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission paid the legal services firm €1.25m (inc VAT) for the legal due diligence exercise on AIB carried out on the Commission's behalf at the request of the Minister for Finance prior to the €3.5 billion investment in AIB by the Fund at the direction of the Minister for Finance. The Fund received €30 million in arrangement fees from AIB in respect of this transaction.
Total paid by my Department to the legal services firm for all services, including the ones mentioned by the Deputy and others, were:
|
Year
|
€
|
|
2008
|
€1,628,024
|
|
2009
|
€5,875,869
|
|
2010
|
€4,804,884
|
|
2011
|
€1,287,182
|
