Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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120. To ask the Minister for Finance the total original book value loans in euro amount that were acquired by the National Asset Management Agency for a consideration of zero euro or some similar low arbitrary nominal value; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55553/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by NAMA that the total nominal or par value of loans acquired for a nominal consideration was of the order of €3.5bn. NAMA advises that there were a number of reasons why this occurred but that the main reason related to defective legal security, meaning that the security was not fully enforceable or, in some cases, entirely unenforceable as some were unsecured loans. In all cases where defective security was identified as a problem, it was NAMA’s practice to allow the participating institutions sufficient time to perfect security – this extended to a period of twelve/eighteen months in some instances. A zero or low acquisition value was only applied where protracted efforts by the original financial institutions to perfect security proved to be unsuccessful.