Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 July 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Overview of Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Frank Daly:

If one says one will not sell an asset in the belief that it will make more in three, five or ten years, one will be in a state of stasis and not do anything. Every time somebody says that if NAMA had held on to an asset for another year, it might have made more, I say we might have but that we might have made less. Consider the UK situation. At one stage, NAMA's loans in the UK amounted to €12 billion. Right now, we are down to approximately €600 million. That was a really strategically wise approach by NAMA. Imagine we were still stuck with assets worth €12 billion in the UK, bearing in mind its current circumstances, the Brexit vote, its current property market and the associated financial uncertainty. I do not know whether there would be anybody, even on this committee, saying we would be right to hold on to them. We have done very well out of the UK. The proceeds helped to finance an awful lot of the good we have done. Staying there now, with certain-----