Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not in a position to answer those questions tonight.

It is worth stating for the information of the House that if a deal had been done today, the first element would have been what we are doing tonight. There is no contention between the European Central Bank and the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland or the Irish Government on the approach of liquidating IBRC, having one bad bank, the National Asset Management Agency, and having an orderly transfer by way of sale to NAMA for NAMA bonds of the assets, after which the wind-down will proceed.

Deputy Michael McGrath stated this is not typical of a normal liquidation and that is, of course, correct but no one is suggesting the liquidator should go in and try to dispose of the all the assets in a fire sale. We are trying to protect the Irish taxpayer and recover some of the ground lost and are doing so in a number of ways. Part of this involves ensuring an orderly wind-down of the IBRC assets, which will be in a special purpose vehicle operated by NAMA when the transfers take place. We want to realise the maximum benefit and obtain the best price possible for the Irish taxpayer because if we do not do so, there will be a shortfall. As the assets are systematically wound down, part of the debt is cleared to the ECB and the more we get for them, the better we will do. If it transpires that some of the information given by representatives of IBRC to the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform is correct - they spoke of being in a better position than envisaged - there may even be a profit. However, I am not predicting that will be the case as I would like to wait and see how this works out.

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