Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No. There is, as we all know, a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General and there are hearings, including this one. At the end of the day, I presume the committee will bring forward a report and it may even make recommendations in the normal way. All I am saying is I saw the Comptroller and Auditor General in a replay of his evidence on RTE. I have great respect for him and his office and the work done, but I am trying to give the committee the context. If the Comptroller and Auditor General says, as he said that night when I saw the report from the time he gave evidence here, that working out the assets to 2020 would have been an option for NAMA, it would not in my view. NAMA was required under law to work out its assets expeditiously. There was then the fact that the NAMA bonds which it had paid for the loan assets to the banks were a contingent liability of €30 billion on the State which was affecting Ireland's credit rating. It was also affecting its access to money on the markets when we had got out of the bailout. Project Eagle occurred three months after getting out of the bailout at the end of 2013. I am stating an opinion and supporting it by giving the committee the context at the time.