PR firm receives €490k for NTMA, Nama work
Gordon MRM received over €490,000 in fees for its public relations work for the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and Nama last year.
The €490,207 total is more than double the €218,889 the firm received for its work for the state agencies in 2016.
But the jump in fees is as a result of Gordon MRM securing a contract after a competitive tender for the work on the AIB shares sale last year, the largest IPO in Europe in 2017.
In a written Dáil reply to Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed that Gordon MRM received €312,602 from the NTMA for its work on the AIB IPO work.
On the IPO costs, Minister Donohoe said the NTMA incurs the cost of professional advisers on matters relating to the work of the Department of Finance’s banking unit, and that the €312,602 costs were paid by AIB.
Minister Donohoe also said that €91,202 of the €312,602 spend was for the provision of advertising in print media.
The Minister also confirmed that Gordon MRM last year received €88,560 for the provision of round-the-clock PR services to the NTMA and to the SBCI, and €89,045 for its round-the-clock work for Nama.
The firm recently secured an extension to its NTMA contract after a successful tender this year.
A spokesman for Gordon MRM declined to comment yesterday.
A separate Dáil reply confirmed Nama paid €73.84m to third and connected parties last year, but that amount included €41.5m paid to the NTMA.
Nine firms, including law and banking services firms, received fees in excess of €1m from Nama, while the NTMA paid fees of around €2m to two professional firms.
