Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Finance if the National Asset Management Agency can operate in circumstances in which it is balance-sheet insolvent, that is, if the booked value of assets in the agency's balance sheet is less than the booked value of its liabilities. [18757/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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NAMA is not a corporate body established under the Companies Acts. It is a statutory body established under the NAMA Act, 2009 and has no minimal capital requirements. I should clarify that I am advised by NAMA that it is not balance sheet insolvent. As with any business, the key obligation for the Agency in terms of solvency, is to ensure it continues to have sufficient cash to meet its short term funding obligations. At 31 March 2012, the Agency had liquid resources of €4.6 billion, comprising cash of €3.6 billion and short-term Irish Government bonds (maturity of less than one year) of €1.0 billion. This was after the repayment of Senior Bonds of €1.25 billion during 2011 and the full repayment of the €299 million loan provided by the Central Fund to NAMA on its inception.

The main charge in the 2010 financial statements was a €1.49bn loan impairment loss. This is an unrealised loss with no short term cash impact on the Agency. However, this loss did reduce the amounts of capital and reserves of the Agency. NAMA is expected to still continue to have positive reserves at end 2011.