Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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127. To ask the Minister for Finance further to the publication by the IMF on 18 June 2014 of its staff report into the Irish economy, and its identification of non performing commercial real estate loans at Irish banks to be an impediment to economic recovery, if he believes his decision in March 2011 to increase the threshold for eligible loans being acquired by the National Asset Management Agency from Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks, from €5 million to €20 million was, in retrospect, the correct decision; if he has any plans to revisit that decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28072/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that on September 30 2010, my predecessor, announced that the Government had decided, having consulted with the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator, the European Commission and the NAMA Board, that where the total exposure of a debtor is below a €20 million threshold in AIB and Bank of Ireland, that the debtor s loans would not be transferred to NAMA. The threshold had previously been set at €5 million. This change was implemented to ensure that NAMA could operate to the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness in the management of its loan portfolio and allow for the completion of all NAMA transfers by end-year 2010. It was considered at the time that smaller loans below this threshold would be better managed through the banks branch networks and through local banking relationships. The decision to raise the threshold from €5 million to €20 million for the transfer of loans from AIB and Bank of Ireland to NAMA reduced the total volume of NAMA eligible loans by €6.6 billion. I have no plans to revist this decision at this time.