Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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170. To ask the Minister for Finance the spending commitments or paying down of debt which has been entered into with regard to the profits arising from the winding down of NAMA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30301/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that it is expected that NAMA will substantially complete its work by 2020. The Agency announced in October 2017 that it had redeemed all of its €30.2bn in Senior Debt which was guaranteed by the State and since April 2018 it has commenced the redemption of its €1.6bn in subordinated debt. However, notwithstanding the successful achievement of repaying the State’s contingent liability, three years ahead of schedule, there is still a significant body of work yet to be completed by NAMA.

Subject to current market conditions prevailing NAMA projects a surplus in the region of €3.5bn to be returned to the State once it completes it work. The realisation of this surplus depends on the redemption of NAMA’s remaining subordinated debt by March 2020 and completion of its Dublin Docklands SDZ and residential funding programmes.

As per section 60(2) of the NAMA Act 2009, NAMA may use surplus funds to redeem and cancel its senior and subordinated debt. Surplus funds may only be returned to the Central Fund once NAMA's debt has been redeemed in full in 2020.

Any NAMA surplus paid, while Exchequer positive, will not impact the general government balance, in line with EUROSTAT rules. It will be a decision for the Government as to how any surplus returned by NAMA will be utilised within the framework of the fiscal rules. However, the intention has always been to use such receipts from the resolution of the financial sector crisis to pay down our national debt and reduce our debt servicing costs.