Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The NAMA review is ongoing at present. It is being conducted internally in consultation with NAMA. It is a requirement under the Act and we will see what it comes up with. NAMA is subject to an awful lot of criticism and adverse briefing, principally driven by developers and builders who have a vested interest in putting out bad stories about NAMA. If one examines the situation in NAMA one will see that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is the most accountable public State agency in the country. As many members are aware, there are staff from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office permanently embedded in NAMA examining every transaction that is conducted. In addition, the valuations it attributed to the loan books it acquired were all cross-checked by the Comptroller and Auditor General, who stated on a number of occasions that this work was conducted properly and that the values attributed were appropriate. The work of NAMA is also cross-checked by the European Commission, which did another audit on it and came to the same conclusion. NAMA is always available to come before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Committee of Public Accounts. It issues quarterly reports as well as annual reports. No public body in the country has the level of accountability and scrutiny of NAMA, but there is a campaign against NAMA in the vested interests of certain people. The committee should be aware of that when it is briefed. It should examine the briefing it gets because much of it is not correct. NAMA has assured me that it will talk to the committee directly on any occasion when there are any doubts about the processes it conducts. It is a very big company that deals with valuable assets. It acts in the interest of the Irish taxpayer and so far it has been quite successful in acting in that regard. If there is a conflict between the interests of the Irish taxpayer and the interests of an individual developer NAMA will favour the taxpayer, and a lot of people do not like that.

On the issue of whether developers would be allowed to buy back their own assets at the discounted rates at which they were acquired by NAMA, as the Deputy is well aware, that is a very controversial issue. It was controversial when the NAMA legislation was being processed through Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. At present I have no intention of changing that. If the NAMA review comes up with a proposal to leave the situation as it is or to change it then we will examine the proposal in due course with all the other recommendations. I am hands-off in terms of the NAMA review. I have no idea what will be recommended. The Deputy will be aware that in other circumstances we allowed buy-backs, but not in NAMA, and it is not my intention to change the legislation.