Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The ECB was putting on pressure but it was not putting pressure on us about Project Eagle. Even if one looks at the draft of the Act, it is mentioned twice that NAMA should dispose of the assets expeditiously. There was no question of the ECB or the troika underlining a situation where loan books could be worked out to 2020. The troika wanted expeditious disposal of the assets to take the contingent liability off the Irish balance sheet and to improve the Irish banks' position. There is no secret about that. That happened at the troika meetings on several occasions.

The rating agencies were involved. In order that Ireland would be able to access the market, we needed to have the status of investment grade. We have broker commentary by the end of the 2014 that all the major rating agencies had classified the Irish sovereign as investment grade and explicitly referenced NAMA's progress to date in their decision to do so. I can quote from the rating agencies where they specifically referenced NAMA and the reduction in contingent liability as the reason for upgrading the Irish sovereign to investment grade. One can see what the rating agencies, Standard & Poors, Moody's, DBRS and others said about Ireland. Standard & Poors said, "Ireland's net general Government debt could reduce faster than we currently expect if NAMA monetises its loan assets more rapidly, resulting in either repayment of its obligation or further accumulation of cash." NAMA would have been in constant contact with the rating agencies. The head of the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, is on the board of NAMA. There is no doubt that was a factor, but in my view we would be going down a cul de sac if we were to say there was political pressure from Northern Ireland or from the South. The pressure was not political but from the troika for the reasons I have outlined and from the rating agencies. It was very good advice from the rating agencies.

At the end of the previous session, I noted the Comptroller and Auditor General said that the option of working out the loan books to 2020 was an option. It was not. From attending troika meetings or listening to the ECB or the rating agencies, one would know that they wanted NAMA to fulfil its mandate and dispose of its assets expeditiously. Nobody in Northern Ireland on any side of the political divide ever said anything to me that could have been assumed to put political pressure on me or on NAMA to do anything other than dispose of the assets in an orderly fashion and get best value for the Irish Exchequer and relieve the burden on the economy of Northern Ireland from having so many significant people involved in impaired loans and not able to play their previous role in the development of the Northern Ireland economy.