Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister his response, which is the same as that given by him in the House on 4 March in response to another parliamentary question. My question is whether, in light of the asset disposal within NAMA and the decision of one of its executives to take up a position in the private sector, there are adequate cooling-off periods in place. I am well aware of what Matheson's advised and the additional protections in place in terms of NAMA and the NTMA since publication of the Matheson report. I discussed these issues with the Minister prior to the commissioning of that report, which I welcomed.

I believe there is a flaw or a weakness in this area. The weakness is that this only applies to new contracts and to people who have been promoted within the agency. For example, these rules did not apply to the executive in question, on whom I am not casting any aspersions, who has left NAMA and taken up employment in INPUT, which is a private sector company dealing in property. Many others also do not come under those rules. Should consideration be given to these rules being applied even on a voluntary basis to people already in binding contracts or is there something else that needs to be done to ensure staff are not poached by the private sector as NAMA begins to wind down?

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