Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 June 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. John Moran:

I feel like I'm back in front of the PAC, you know, given ... but I say that somewhat seriously Deputy, right. I mean, we're talking about the liquidation of an entity which, you'll also see in the papers, there were potential scenarios in which we would have lost €8 billion if the liquidation had been done badly, right. A process was undertaken. By definition, it had to be done without public procurement, given the nature of the decision, to try and take advantage of the rates that had been negotiated by other parts of the system. I think at the time NAMA, who were not actually under the same secrecy obligations when they were negotiating their rates, to try and negotiate the best deal with IBRC, or sorry, with KPMG. This is a liquidation which, even if it costs us €150 million, right, will compare to the cost of the liquidation of Enron, which was €700 million and Lehman Brothers, which was €2 billion or €3 billion, right. And if we achieve it for €150 million or €200 million and I'm not suggesting that KPMG should charge that much if they have not finalised their terms with their colleagues but I think, in the context of the end result, where we are actually talking now about a recovery of over €1 billion when we never expected to get recovery and we may have actually lost as much as €8 billion, I think it will be a job well done and spending that much money for a job well done is I think, something we need to do. And this is what I mean by, we need, in our broader system, to keep a context around these issues. They are very large numbers but there are equally larger numbers at stake.

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