NTMA still to recover €2.5m stolen in phishing attack

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has yet to recover half of the €5 million stolen during a voice phishing attack last summer.

The NTMA is responsible for managing public assets and liabilities for long-term benefit on behalf of the State.

It oversees the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which invests in projects that support economic activity and employment in Ireland.

In July 2026, the agency received a fraudulent payment request from a third party that was designed and timed to pass as a legitimate request from an Ireland Strategic Investment Fund investee.

It was reported that voice impersonation and a fake invoice was used to carry out the scam.

This morning, the NTMA’s Chief Executive Frank O’Connor will tell an Oireachtas committee that €2.5 million of the stolen €5 million has been recovered so far.

He will reiterate to the Public Accounts Committee that there was no compromise of the NTMA’s IT systems.

The committee will hear that Deloitte conducted an independent forensic investigation to “establish the facts and to examine relevant internal controls”.

This investigation is now completed and the NTMA will say it has engaged with Comptroller and the Auditor General on the issue.

Mr O’Connor will say that enhanced controls were put in place immediately after the incident to protect it against future financial crime risks.

“Deloitte’s investigation also recommended certain key measures to increase protection against similar financial crime risks, which we have implemented in full,” he will say.

The NTMA is continuing its efforts to recover the rest of the stolen money, Mr O’Connor will say.

National debt could rise to a quarter of a trillion euro

The committee will also hear that the national debt now stands at €200 billion and by the 2030s this could approach a quarter of a trillion euro.

Frank O’Connor will call this a “very high-level indebtedness” that “carries risk”.

Mr O’Connor will say that the agency managed a national debt of around €30 billion at its inception 35 years ago, and “that was seen as high then”.

The Chief Executive will say that it is something that debt managers cannot be complacent about and “the ability to service that debt is critical”.

He will say the “record low interest rates that arose from Quantitative Easing” in recent years made servicing debt “easier and cheaper”.

TDs and senators will hear that in 2024 the cost of the NTMA servicing debt was €3.2 billion, 60% below its peak of €8 billion in 2013.

Mr O’Connor will say that the NTMA “took advantage of the low-interest rate era by locking in low borrowing costs for long terms”.

The agency also borrowed money early at low rates, he will say, before warning that “era is now over”.

“The benefits of borrowing at low fixed rates will recede, as these lower-cost debts gradually mature and are replaced with more expensive debt.

“We also have to be prepared for rates potentially rising further and the additional costs that would come with that,” Mr O’Connor will say.