Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Public Accounts Committee

2014 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2014
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 3 - Cost of Bank Stabilisation Measures as at the end of 2014
Finance Accounts 2014

10:00 am

Ms Ann Nolan:

I think I can say to the Deputy that we carried out a section 227 review, which was required after three years, if I remember exactly, and there will be a further review after a further three years. The first review we undertook suggested NAMA should speed up its property sales, which is what it has done subsequently. I should point out NAMA owes €8 billion that is guaranteed by the Government and which Moody's finally has agreed is no longer a serious threat to the Government. However, were we to change the strategy and state the agency no longer was obliged to pay back the aforementioned €8 billion, it would not take long for the rating agencies to start saying the Government was responsible for this debt. What we must get and what we have asked of NAMA under the section 227 review we have completed is that balance between long-term investment where it is needed because there is a disruption in the market, as provided for in the NAMA Act, and the payback of debt at a point to stop this debt being a millstone around the country's neck and damaging growth in the country. This is the current position but obviously, there will be another section 227 review in, I think, another year. Can the Comptroller and Auditor General remember in what year it is due?

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