Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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38. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide an update in relation to the special liquidation of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation; when the special liquidation process will be fully completed; if he will provide an estimate, based on currently available information and any return to the State from the special liquidation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4671/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Special Liquidators continue to implement the orderly and efficient wind down of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited (in Special Liquidation) in accordance with the provisions of the IBRC Act and the instructions issued by the Minister for Finance under the IBRC Act 2013.

As the Deputy is aware, for operational reasons, the loan assets of IBRC were divided into six portfolios: Evergreen, Sand, Rock, Salt, Stone and Pebble. In total, there were 15,734 Borrower Groups comprising 24,632 loans for sale across the 6 portfolios.

In April 2014, the Special Liquidators announced that this initial loan sales process had concluded. The sales process of the IBRC loan assets, including their segmentation to meet demand from international buyers, delivered a very positive result with over 90% of the loan assets (with a par value of €21.7bn) being sold.

As it became apparent that the expected proceeds to be raised from the sale of the IBRC loan assets were to be sufficient to fully repay the IBRC debt to NAMA, I, as Minister for Finance, instructed that NAMA were no longer obliged to purchase the unsold IBRC assets at their independent valuation as previously envisaged.

Since that instruction, the Special Liquidators have undertaken further sales processes in respect of unsold assets so as to maximise the return to all remaining creditors of IBRC, including the State.

Following representations received from borrowers and the independent advice received, the final loan assets were split into two portfolios: Pearl (into two tranches) and Quartz (initially split into six tranches, but subsequently consolidated into five tranches). Pearl comprised the unsold residential mortgage loan assets and Quartz comprised mostly commercial real estate loan assets.

The sale of the Pearl portfolio was contracted prior to 31st December 2014. The sale of tranche 1 of Pearl has since completed with the sale of tranche 2 of Pearl to complete before 28th February 2015. The five tranches of the Quartz portfolio were contracted for sale prior to 31st December 2014 with the sale of four of these tranches now complete. The sale of the final tranche is due to complete this Friday, 6th February 2015.

The Special Liquidators have published advertisements and written to those known creditors in order to finalise their claims in the liquidation. Creditors in the UK and Ireland have until 31st March 2015 to submit their claims and those creditors in the US have until 31st May 2015. Once all claims have been submitted, they will be reviewed in detail and adjudicated on by the Special Liquidators. In order to finalise this process, further information may be sought from some creditors in order to validate their claim.

It will be some time before the Special Liquidators will be in a position to advise on the likely dividends to be payable to creditors (including the State) given:

1. The early stage in the creditor adjudication process;

2. The other contingent liabilities that may crystallise from litigation; and

3. The future receipts from the sale of the remaining assets.