Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Public Accounts Committee
Annual Report and Financial Statements 2012: Discussion with National Asset Management Agency
10:40 am
Mr. Brendan McDonagh:
It would be better, obviously, if the economy grows. However, I am basing it on what is happening at present and the continued interest in the Irish property market. As I said, the market is not homogenous. We are fortunate with the NAMA portfolio in that 93% of it is in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. Of that 93%, 67% is in Dublin, 10% is in the commuter belt, 10% is in Cork, 4% is in Galway and 2% is in Limerick. Our assets are in those major cities. Only 7% of our assets in Ireland are outside them, which amounts to approximately €850 million. That €850 million is quite small in the context of our current loan book. If that takes much longer to recover, it will not hold back NAMA in meeting its potential. We have been very fortunate, unlike other asset management companies in other countries, that from the start 44% of our portfolio was outside of Ireland. It allowed us to generate a great deal of activity to give us a chance to hold back on the Irish market and let that market recover.