Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 October 2020

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report 109 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency
National Asset Management Agency - Financial Statements 2019

11:30 am

Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

No. As I said to one of the Deputy's colleagues, what goes on is that all NAMA debtors have been trying to get out of NAMA from day one. They have been approaching banks, private equity funds and wealthy investors to tell them that their loans are in NAMA and asking them to refinance those loans out of NAMA, at which point they would help the bank, private equity fund or investor to manage those loans afterwards. That is the real world and that is what happens. The reality is that whoever puts their money up, these guys are tough as nails and they will not give any of their profits away to the former debtors. They might pay them a fee to help manage the asset, depending on the complexity of the situation and if they needed them. In most cases, they do not pay a fee. They just throw the debtor aside and manage the asset themselves.