The classification of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) as a public body, for the purposes of a European regulation that provides for public access to environmental information, will have no effect on the classification of Nama Investment Ltd (Nama-IL) as being outside the government sector, the Central Statistics Office has said.

Although Nama itself is a government body, both the CSO and the European Commission statistical service, Eurostat, have previously accepted that Nama-IL should be classified as an off balance sheet private sector Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

This means the cost of funding Nama-IL is not added to the official General Government Debt. If reclassified as a public body, Nama-IL could add some €27 billion of debt securities to the General Government Debt, based on its debt securities at the end of Q3 2012.

This classification results from Eurostat’s 2009 ruling that SPVs which are majority owned by private companies may be regarded as being outside of the government sector, during the financial crisis, if they meet certain conditions.