23-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
IBRC liquidators pay €250m to Exchequer as preparation underway to hand work over to NTMA
The money is in addition to €110m distributed to the Exchequer in the 25 months up to January this year, according to the latest progress report from special liquidators Eamonn Richardson and Kieran Wallace, who were appointed in 2013.
The Eleventh Progress Update Report outlines the first substantial recovery for taxpayers of any of the around €34bn pumped into Anglo Irish Bank and INBS to prevent them both collapsing during the Irish banking crisis, although the bulk of those funds will never be recouped. Further payments to the State are expected as liquidators work through remaining loans that have a face value of €3.1bn, although their true value in the current market may be significantly lower.
Remaining assets include a luxury hotel in Prague that was once a prime asset of Sean Quinn. The Hilton Prague was formally put up for sale last year and has been tipped to fetch as much as €300m.
The latest update from the special liquidators to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe does not go into detail on specific borrowers or assets.
It says legislative work is underway to create a unit within the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) to take over from the liquidators when their tenure ends later this year and manage any residual activity associated with the IBRC, including ongoing legal cases and any residual debtor/asset management activity required.
The same unit will take over any business the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has not concluded at the end of its term.
Drafting of legislation to complete both a winding-up of IBRC and the dissolution of Nama had started last year but was interrupted by the general election and change of government. While the plan had been to transfer IBRC work to Nama once the special liquidation ends, the policy now will be to transfer the residual assets and responsibilities of both directly to the NTMA resolution unit.
IBRC liquidators began with a loan portfolio that had a 'par' or face value of €21bn which had to be sold off to repay the outstanding debts of the two banks that crucially included bonds held by the Central Bank linked to the so-called Anglo Irish Bank promissory note.
Over the 25 months covered by the 11th IBRC progress report, legal and professional fees incurred by the special liquidators were €8.6m.
Total fees incurred since the beginning of the special liquidation in February 2013 up to January 31 of this year are €319.4m.
