Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has described the response of the Irish authorities in a very particular way. I am advised that the loan sale was executed in a proper manner. Despite all the confusion and the coverage in the media, the fact is that there are no claims of wrongdoing against NAMA. The loan portfolio sold for €1.5 billion because that is what the properties securing the loans were worth. The original amounts of €5.7 billion that were loaned by the banks prior to the establishment of NAMA have no relevance to the current value of the underlying property security. I am informed that NAMA paid no moneys to, or had any relationship with, any party to this loan sale against which allegations of wrongdoing are now being made. The loan portfolio was sold to the highest bidder for what it was worth following an open process. Attempts to conflate NAMA's open market loan sale process with an internal issue on the other side of the sale are wrong. As is now known, NAMA did not appear before the Committee for Finance and Personnel of the Northern Ireland Assembly. I understand it is not the intention of NAMA to be in any way unhelpful in the committee's work. It seems that its decision not to appear before the committee was a reflection of its sensitivity to the fact that it is accountable here to the Minister for Finance and the Oireachtas through committees like the Committee of Public Accounts-----

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