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

NAMA's mandate derives primarily from section 10 of the NAMA Act, which requires it to "obtain the best achievable return for the State" from its acquired loans and the properties securing those loans. As Minister for Finance, I do not intervene in the detail of NAMA's business and I would consider it inappropriate to do so.

I would point out that NAMA's remit does not extend to providing assistance to start-up businesses. The Government recognises that SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy and will play a vital role in the recovery of employment growth in the country. There are a number of other State agencies with a clearly-defined mandate in that area and I am satisfied that those agencies currently provide a comprehensive suite of incentives to encourage and support business start-ups.

NAMA continues to make a significant contribution to economic activity and job creation in Ireland, for example, through its deployment of working and development capital and vendor finance; through its work in identifying and facilitating the sale or lease of buildings to IDA Ireland clients; and through its provision of rent abatements to support struggling small and medium-sized businesses.

NAMA is working actively with IDA Ireland to identify suitable properties to meet the requirements of foreign direct investment. The recent announcement by Facebook that it is moving into a 120,000 sq. ft. office space in Grand Canal Square, giving it the potential to double its workforce in Ireland, is a direct result of NAMA's work with IDA Ireland. NAMA advanced funding to complete this building and worked closely with IDA Ireland to meet Facebook's requirements. Other recent examples include: the letting of a number of office blocks at Elm Park to the Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Novartis; the purchase by Scottish and Southern Energy of its new corporate headquarters at Leopardstown; and the investment of over €100 million by the Kerry Group at Millennium Park in Naas. In all of these examples, NAMA acted to facilitate the transactions by offering structured engagement between its debtors and receivers and the potential new investors and by providing funding to complete buildings where this was necessary.

It is important in this context to reiterate that NAMA's interest in property is that of a lender holding security for its loans rather than that of an owner. Through its email address, info@nama.ie, it helps businesses, individuals and groups to identify properties that may be suitable for their purposes. It acts as intermediary between interested parties and the debtors and receivers who control the properties by ensuring that debtors and receivers are aware of any potential purchaser or lessee interest in their properties and by facilitating engagement between the interested parties and debtors-receivers. I would encourage those interested in establishing premises for start-up businesses to engage with NAMA through this channel to identify properties that may be suitable.

I would also highlight that my officials are engaging with groups across the economy to better understand and facilitate the needs for enterprise space to support start-up businesses. We are working with city councils, business development agencies and interest groups to determine how we can be helpful in promoting business creation in Ireland, one key element of which is the creation of commercially viable enterprise space to facilitate co-working, hot-desking, incubation and acceleration of emerging businesses in Ireland such as that created by, among others, The Liffey Trust, The Digital Hub and Treehouse.

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