69 bankrupts in Nama are now discharged

Over 70% of the 96 Nama debtors who declared themselves bankrupt have been discharged from their bankruptcy.

That is according to new figures provided by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, who has confirmed that the 96 debtors had €8.4bn of debts between them.

In a written Dáil response to Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath, Mr Noonan said that 69 of the 96 bankrupts have been discharged from their bankruptcy.

Fifty-eight bankrupts were discharged in the UK, 10 in Ireland, and one in the US.

Some of those developers to exit bankruptcy in the UK include developers, Bernard McNamara, Paddy Shovlin, and John Fleming.

The figures show that 12 debtors have been discharged from bankruptcy this year, including eight in the UK and four in Ireland.

Those numbers compare with the 21 discharged in 2014, including 14 in the UK, six in Ireland and one in the US.

The figures show that the most popular jurisdiction to declare bankruptcy this year was in Ireland, where five people were declared bankrupt, and two people in the UK. There was also the first Nama debtor bankruptcy to take place in South Africa.

The numbers of Nama debtors declaring themselves bankrupt reached a peak in 2012 when 32 declared themselves bankrupt, including 29 to do so in the UK.

In his reply to Mr McGrath, Mr Noonan said: “Nama’s security position is not adversely affected by debtor bankruptcy. In the case of debtors who have been declared bankrupt, Nama has enforced over the assets that secures its loans and continues to realise these assets in the normal way.

“When a debtor is declared bankrupt, the assets available to the bankruptcy trustee are usually the remaining unencumbered/ unsecured assets.

“The role of the bankruptcy trustee is to realise these assets and to make a distribution to all unsecured creditors including any Nama unsecured balances.”

“The bankruptcy trustee continues to deal with all outstanding debt, even where a bankruptcy is discharged, until such time as all assets have been realised and the debt, in so far as possible, has been repaid.

“The bankruptcy trustee can also seek to have the bankrupt contribute from post-bankruptcy earnings through an income payment order.”

Mr McGrath said yesterday: “Until the passage of the recent bankruptcy legislation in Ireland the difference in the discharge period in the UK versus Ireland obviously made the UK a much more viable destination for a person contemplating bankruptcy.

“When Nama was initially established, the discharge period was 12 years in Ireland as against 12 months in the UK.

“In that context, the figures provided by Minister Noonan are not surprising.

“It is essential that Nama continues to act to maximise the return to taxpayers by the most effective use of the assets it has secured from those who went bankrupt.”

Separately, Mr Noonan confirmed the ongoing bonanza for receivers from Nama work, with fees of €100m amassed since 2010.

In a written Dáil reply to Mr McGrath, Mr Noonan yesterday said that receivers got fees of €17.32m to date this year and fees of €23m last year.