Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The Minister stated this morning that he has notified the Commissioner that this will be done in future and that the Commissioner is satisfied with this approach. It must be allowed if the Commissioner has agreed to it. The reason the Minister is able to state that the remaining bad debts in Anglo Irish Bank will be transferred to NAMA in one tranche and will no longer be taken sequentially is that sampling has been done to enable the transfer to proceed.

While certainty has been provided about what will be done with Allied Irish Banks and Irish Nationwide, the Minister's attitude to the Educational Building Society does not provide certainty. This is a very important issue. We all know the EBS is on the market but the Minister did not indicate when NAMA will make a decision in the matter. I do not understand the reason it takes so long to examine four bids.

See this speech in context