Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We put in place a board, chaired by the former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, to conduct that business and it had a very clear mandate to deliver best value. It was not told how to conduct its sales or whether they should be done individually or bundled: it was told to secure best value. It was also to be overseen by the Oireachtas, via the Comptroller and Auditor General and through the PAC. A system was put in place to give it the necessary discretion to act in the interest of the taxpayer, to maximise value, but at the same time the Oireachtas had this oversight mechanism. It has pursued that faithfully and has reported faithfully in respect of this.

On the issue of whether a sale of a loan realises the book value, as the Deputy knows - if he does not know he can consult the records of the House - often these banks had only a tiny proportion of the real value that was loaned in their books. That was the nature of the crash we experienced. There is no question that one can expect NAMA to realise the full book value of loans that were transferred to NAMA at a substantial haircut. I do not know what the haircut on individual loans was, nor is that a matter of public knowledge, but it is clear that they did not have anywhere near the book value. NAMA has dealt with this in the way I outlined by open tender. It was a competitive tender. It was overseen by the Comptroller and Auditor General's representative, it was subject to audit in the normal way and it was subject to a report back to the PAC.

The issue of the involvement on the other side of the trade of possible fee structures was brought to the attention of NAMA's board. It acted properly to disallow the company that was bidding in such a way. It informed the Minister of its decision, as it should have, and it then proceeded, when the successful tender came through, to seek assurances that no such fee was being paid and it received those assurances from the successful bidder. NAMA has behaved properly in the way it has conducted its business and the record of the way it handled this speaks for itself.

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