Spending watchdog adds up total cost of bailout to the State

The total cost to the State of the bailout has been revealed as €60bn.

Spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, says servicing that includes €9bn in borrowing to meet interest payments.

Meanwhile, the Exchequer has recovered more than €5bn from selling stakes in banks - while winding up Nama is expected to yield about €1bn.

The Comptroller found that the cost of consultants and legal advisers during the bank recapitalisation programme came to €149m paid out by the state to 19 firms.

Among the payments were €33m to law firm Arthur Cox, €23m to Blackrock Financial Management, €21m to Ernst and Young, and €13m to KPMG.

Payments below the €10m mark included €9m to Goldman Sachs, €8m to PricewaterhouseCoopers, €7m each to Merrill Lynch and NM Rothschild & Sons, and €5m to Boston Consulting Group.

The biggest payments were by the Central Bank – €23m to Blackrock and €21m to Ernst and Young.

The Department of Finance had one single bill of €19m to Arthur Cox.