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

It is important to think the matter through. NAMA is required to get the best return possible for the taxpayer on anything it sells. The only way for it to establish this is to have a competitive process. That is exactly what the liquidator is doing. It cannot sell a single mortgage unilaterally to the mortgage holder because it needs to establish value in the market. If it were to sell mortgages individually, rather than in loan books, it could result in a mortgage holder's neighbour who had a row over planning permission buying the mortgage. Alternatively, someone with whom the mortgage holder is in dispute or another family member, in circumstances where the family is not pulling together, could come in and buy the mortgage. Therefore, it is not a solution. If the rule requires a competitive bidding procedure to establish value, there is no guarantee that the person who has the mortgage will end up being owner in that situation. Of course, if NAMA acquires a large tranche of the mortgages which originated in Irish Nationwide Building Society, over time it will also sell them. However, we will have time to look at what conditions it might attach to them for the benefit of mortgage holders. We can have that discussion subsequently. We are now in phase 2 and the liquidator has advised that he will complete the sale sometime in March. We will see where we stand at that point and then address outstanding issues.

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