Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

It is unreasonable of the Deputy to expect me, in the first quarter of 2012, to take a different view from NAMA about what the situation may be in 2020. All I can do is to give him the assurances NAMA has given to me and, separately, to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. I accept those figures as the best possible estimate at this time.

As I said in my reply, there are many moving parts. We do not know what will happen in the property market in Ireland. It looks now as if there is the beginning of slight growth in the property market in Ireland. We are not sure what will happen in the property market in the United Kingdom or in the economies of countries where NAMA has significant portfolios. However, on the basis of the information available to NAMA at present, which the agency has shared with me, I share the view of NAMA that it will at least break even by 2020 and will complete its task in accordance with the Act.

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