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

NAMA is obliged to act in the interest of the taxpayer and that is the Government's obligation and interest as well. Considerations of a play on the property market should not be the primary concern. People who waited for the market to peak during the Celtic tiger crashed out and those who sold at a lesser price took their money with them. It is, therefore, a difficult call but it is not the purpose of governments or a Minister for Finance to play the property market. The purpose of the Government and the Department of Finance is to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to ensure that, at a minimum, no additional liability arises. NAMA is going well under those considerations. It will pay back all its senior and subordinated debt and it looks now, even though it has assets to dispose of yet, that it will show some degree of a surplus. If property prices go up, that surplus might increase; if they go down, there might be no surplus. Everything in markets is temporary. Ireland had approximately 58% of the property transactions in Europe in 2013 in value terms. That will not last either. Nothing lasts; these things never last.

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