Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I refer to the notice published yesterday on the NTMA website advertising and tendering for advisers for NAMA. We have received legal advice that proceeding with NAMA as a shadow agency is very fraught in terms of the constitutional and legal proprieties. Information held by the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator and other agencies is confidential under the terms of the legislation. Thus far, the Minister for Finance has spent between €2 million and €6 million in fees to Merrill Lynch and a preliminary fee of €3.8 million to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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