Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The allegations made by the Deputy are not correct. To get back to her original point about the percentage of the nominal value of the asset represented by the assets being sold in Project Eagle, if one puts it in context there was over €70 billion nominal value of assets acquired by NAMA on the payment of NAMA bonds. The NAMA bonds are to the value of €30.2 billion. It is not the €30.2 billion one must look at. The price it received for Project Eagle was about €1.6 billion.

The Deputy can do the sum. However, as she says, and she is not incorrect, it is approximately 3% of the total loan portfolio. To allege that I wanted to get rid of Project Eagle at all costs makes no sense because it represented such a small proportion of the overall portfolio. My concerns were strategic in the interest of the State in order that we could access money on the markets, get a proper credit rating and reduce interest rates for ordinary consumers and commercial activity. That was my strategic interest. Whether it sold the Northern Ireland assets or not, it was 3% of the total portfolio. Of course, any big sale was important but it did not matter in the context of the totality of things whether Project Eagle was sold at that point or not. I was not going around saying, "Sell at all costs; you have to sell". I put no pressure on anybody. The Northern Ireland authorities, to my knowledge, put no pressure on anybody. Mr. Frank Daly said he was under no political pressure and I have explained to the Deputy the circumstances of why NAMA thought it was important to divest itself "expeditiously", to use the word in the Act, of the assets.

I have also explained on a number of occasions today why, from a policy point of view, I wanted NAMA to achieve targets for disposal of assets. The 80% target was set by me in consultation with NAMA and on the advice of my officials, to see was this achievable and taking on board NAMA's advice on what was possible in the commercial market in the different locations where they had assets at the time. However, it is incorrect to say that I had a singular objective of disposing of the assets represented by Project Eagle. I did not have and I had no interest to have.