Enda Kenny calls for NI co-operation in NAMA Inquiry

Opposition leaders are to seek a broad inquiry into the operations of Nama, extending beyond the sale of its Northern Ireland loans, though this is likely to be resisted by the Government.

Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) said in a report released on Wednesday that the 1.3 billion pound minimum price for soured loans with a par value of 4.5 billion pounds “involved a significant probable loss of value to the State of up to 190 million pounds”.

Ultimately, Lazard’s, advisors for Nama on the Project Eagle sale, recommended that U.S. firm Cerberus had the best bid for the loan book.

Submissions from the party leaders on what should be investigated will be forwarded to the Taoiseach’s Department within the next week.

In Northern Ireland, Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster called for maximum transparency over the deal and argued that the National Crime Agency (NCA) probe should take precedence north of the border.

The financial watchdog has formally now questioned whether Nama should have considered the role of Frank Cushnihan, a businessman and member of Nama’s northern Ireland advisory committee.

NAMA has said the key finding of the report is “fundamentally unsound and unstable and can not be left unchallenged”.

It added that it also expected the Public Accounts Committee to convene a public hearing on the report and would offer it any support it needed.

NAMA said the C&AG was incorrect in assuming that NAMA should have applied the same 5.5 percent discount rate it typically used for assets in Dublin and London and was correct to apply a larger 10 percent discount rate for the “poor quality” Northern Ireland loans.

The Project Eagle deal with United States investment fund Cerberus in 2014 has been dogged by scandal for more than a year, including £7m linked to it being found in an Isle of Man bank account.

The bad bank’s under-fire chairman Frank Daly yesterday said the Project Eagle portfolio would not reach even near that price today.

But Nama has insisted it got the best price possible for its controversial Northern Ireland property portfolio.

“The C&AG has performed a very important role in scrutinising our decisions and auditing our accounts over the past seven years but, regrettably, the key conclusions in this report are without the relevant loan sale market expertise and as such we have no option but regretfully to reject them categorically”, he said.

“The Government’s objective is to ensure that all matters of public concern are addressed in a speedy and effective manner”.