Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 28 September 2023
Public Accounts Committee
NAMA Financial Statements 2022 and Special Report 116 of the Comptroller and Auditor General
9:30 am
Mr. Brendan McDonagh:
I have that detail but I just do not have it with me. To answer the Deputy's questions on whether there was someone appointed within NAMA, one of the teams that we established within NAMA was for that very purpose. We recruited three professional planners and they were part of NAMA for a long number of years. As NAMA got smaller, we now have one very senior professional planner within our team. All along, we have tried to maintain planning permissions where we could, having taken the advice of our in-house planning team and, obviously, the people working in NAMA in dealing and working with debtors and receivers, wherever possible. I would find it very hard to give up planning permission, if I had it. It adds to the value of the land, rather than reverting to agricultural value. We have spent a lot of money on planning permission over the years to try to maintain planning and get it extended where possible.