Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 29 September 2016

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle

9:00 am

Mr. Frank Daly:

Yes. One takes into account three factors. There is the time value of money; £1.3 billion now is better than £1.3 billion in four, five or six years. There is NAMA's cost of capital, which over the period to 2020 will probably be 4% or 5%. There is also the risk of whether cashflows will keep coming and will market price for the asset be achieved when we go to sell it. I was influenced by many factors. I was chairman of the Northern Ireland advisory committee for five years and I spent much time in Northern Ireland talking to business people and economists. I did not form a very positive view of the way the Northern Ireland economy was going and I believe that view has been borne out. In 2014, the Northern Ireland economy grew by 2.3% but in 2015 it fell by 1.8%. I mentioned Brexit earlier but was kind of shot down because it might be seen as hindsight but there was much other hindsight mentioned today in terms of this report, conflicts of interest and so on. If I were in the position now of still having that portfolio on our hands, trying to sell it now, next year or the year after, I would be very uncomfortable as chairman of NAMA.

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