Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. However, I disagree with him that NAMA made a swift and decisive response once the information was brought to its attention. The Minister stated the contravention of provisions of the National Asset Management Agency Act are criminal offences. NAMA is not a competent authority for investigating possible criminal offences. This matter should be referred immediately to An Garda Síochána as soon as it was brought to the agency’s attention. That is what I called for on 5 August. NAMA delayed by appointing Deloitte to do an internal review. Subsequently, only when further evidence emerged was the matter referred to An Garda Síochána.

The practice of NAMA engaging in the private sale of assets under its portfolio without putting those properties up for sale in the open market stinks. It needs to come to an end. Will the Minister make that one practical change immediately? As the Minister knows, the gentleman in question, Mr. Farrell, on leaving NAMA went to work for Forum Partners, a property management company, as its Ireland representative. I am making no allegation as to how information may or may not have been used. However, the potential was certainly there for commercial information of an invaluable value to be used for commercial advantage for one or more parties.

What we need to get to the bottom of now is where all of this information ended up. This is information concerning over 11,000 loans with a book value of over €70 billion and 16,000 properties. Where is that information today? In whose hands did it end up? Since the information was leaked from the agency, is there any evidence of transactions from which persons could have commercially benefited? These questions need to be answered quickly. The Minister should carry out an independent review of what happened in this case, as well as into the wider control procedures and governance arrangements at NAMA. There was a catastrophic failure of procedures in this case. It could yet have potentially negative consequences for the agency and taxpayers. We need to get to the bottom of it and ensure nothing like this happens again.

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