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:

It is easy to come back with hindsight and say that we should have done certain things, and if we were doing it today, we would do so. At the time, NAMA was under immense pressure from the troika to generate cash to pay off €7.5 billion of debt in order that Ireland could get out of the troika bailout. We knew that it was highly likely that these debtors would be enforced against by third-party banks and creditors. We had to make the decision at the time because we knew that we had to get money in and that these guys could fall over at any moment. If they fell over, we would find it very difficult to realise value on those assets.