The liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), home to the remnants of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society, handed over €250 million of surplus cash to the Exchequer last week, bringing total distributions in recent years to €360 million.
The disclosures were made by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday as he published the 11th annual progress update on the liquidation of IBRC.
It comes as legislation is going through the Oireachtas aimed at rolling IBRC into the National Asset Management Agency, before the combined entity is ultimately wound up and its remaining assets are transferred to a new resolution unit within the National Treasury Management Agency.
The €360 million has been paid in respect of ordinary shares the Government holds in IBRC following the crisis-era nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.
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It is in addition to €1.7 billion received since IBRC was put into liquidation in 2013. These relate to State debt claims, driven by a government guarantee scheme being tapped as part of the liquidation.
The progress update said that “further distributions will be made as the remaining assets are realised”.
“At inception, the IBRC loan portfolio had a par value of €21 billion. At the end of January 2025, that value stood at €3.1 billion, representing a significant reduction in the overall loan portfolio,” said Mr Donohoe. “I want to take this opportunity to formally acknowledge the exceptional progress made by the special liquidators of the IBRC in maximising the return on IBRC’s portfolio to date.”
IBRC’s liquidators are also in the process of selling most of the assets left on the company’s books - including several properties that once belonged to businessman Seán Quinn’s family. However, it faces difficulties selling Ukrainian and Russian assets due to the war between the countries.
The latest report indicated fees incurred in the liquidation in the 25 months to the end of January were €8.6 million, bringing fees incurred since the beginning of the liquidation in February 2013 to €319.4 million.
