Minister for Finance does not rule out repaying IBRC junior bondholders

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said in the Dáil on Wednesday that it is "not clear" yet whether junior bondholders will be repaid after the liquidation of the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.

He said “unsecured creditors will get paid if there is money but there is a ranking order and it is not clear yet whether the €280 million worth of junior bondholders” will pursue and can validate their position as creditors and “if there will be any money left over when all other unsecured creditors are paid in full.

He was responding to Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty who said Bloomberg had reported that "bondholders may get paid around the same time as water bills will drop through the letterboxes of families across this State".

The Minister said the sales process for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation had resulted in more than 90 per cent of the loan assets sold, with a par value of €21.7 billion.

Mr Doherty said, however, that “we are talking about €35 billion” that was injected into the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, “which crippled the State”.

The Donegal South-West TD said that when the bank was put into liquidation a Department of Finance briefing stated that “it is not expected that any assets will be available to repay subordinate liability holders”.

Mr Noonan said it was the view at the time of the briefing that there would not be any additional money for unsecured creditors. He said the State represented 70 per cent of unsecured creditors and this meant “there will be money available for it”.

The special liquidator was now advertising for any person believing they were an unsecured creditor to make a claim. But the Minister said that since the Government came into office the cash required for bank recapitalisation was reduced by €5.8 billion through burden-sharing with subordinate bondholders. He added there were subordinate bonds of nominal value of €280 million that remained outstanding when IBRC was liquidated in 2013.