Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has backed the management of the National Treasury Management Agency after it was subject to a €5 million fraud.
The NTMA’s Ireland Strategic Investment Fund made the payment in what is termed a cash call to a third party that pretended to be an investee company, which had previously received a legitimate payment.
The NTMA is the body responsible for Ireland’s national debt.
At a press conference, Minister Donohoe said the fraudulent payment “was regrettable and extremely rare”.
He added he had seen at first hand how the NTMA protects the taxpayers’ money and “every effort” would be made to investigate the issue.
It is understood that the payment was made to a third party which pretended to be a fund that had previously received a payment from the NTMA.
The fraudulent payment was made last week and staff at the organisation reported the issue to gardaí when they became aware of the matter.
The CEO of the NTMA said the “immediate focus was on recovery” of the money.
“We will have a hard look at our own systems,” Frank O’Connor said.
He added that there was no suggestion of an IT breach on the side of the NTMA or any threat to the IT systems of the NTMA.
Meanwhile, the NTMA said today it had sold off Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian sovereign bonds due to “geopolitical uncertainty”.
The organisation previously had a holding of €2.6m in Israeli bonds in 2023.
Sinn Féin criticised the Government for continuing in invest in Israeli bonds as the offensive in Gaza was unfolding.
“It is shameful that this Government continued to invest in Israeli war bonds as we watched with horror Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinian people on our screens,” said Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty.
“The NTMA accounts show that the state continued to invest in Israeli war bonds up until at least the end of 2024,” Mr Doherty said.
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The NTMA issued its annual report today and said Ireland borrowed money at an average interest rate of 2.7% last year.
It said despite higher marginal funding costs over recent years, the country’s annual interest bill remained stable at €3.2 billion last year, almost 60% below its peak in 2013 after the financial crisis.
The agency said the interest bill is likely to remain stable in the near term as almost all of Ireland’s existing debt is at fixed rates.
The net debt, when cash on deposit and liquid assets, are taken into account, now stands at €157 billion while the gross debt is €232 billion.
The NTMA said its funding strategy meant that it had over €30 billion in cash and liquid assets which reduces its requirement for borrowing in the coming years.
The NTMA’s Ireland Strategic Investment Fund made 35 investments last year worth €1.6 billion.
The Minister for Finance said the NTMA continued to build up cash balances at a time when Ireland could face volatility caused by US tariffs.
He said that before US President Donald Trump issued his letter warning of 30% tariffs on EU goods over the weekend the Government believed that “some progress” had been made.
He added Ireland was in a “fortunate position” because it had “extensive cash balances” and the economy was on a “solid footing”.
He said the Department of Finance had modelled the effect of tariffs, but none of its analysis was based on tariffs of 30%.
The Department would be modelling the effect of that now, he added.
