Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Public Accounts Committee

National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014

9:30 am

Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

We did. In my statement, I said: "Cumulatively, the write-downs taken against Northern Ireland debtor connections totalled €800 million between 2010 and 2014." As the Deputy will appreciate - I remember we had a technical discussion about this during my first appearance in respect of NAMA accounts back in 2010 - international financial reporting standards, IFRS, force us to approve an effective interest rate, EIR, at the acquisition date of the portfolio. Effectively, that is a non-cash accrual, whether we are actually getting the cash or not. When I looked at the €280 million with my chief financial officer, we looked at it in terms of the cash we paid for the portfolio - the cash received to date. Nobody really understands IFRS except accountants. We examined the cash loss for NAMA, taking the ins and outs, and it was €280 million. Those figures will be made available to the Comptroller and Auditor General.