Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government line on this is that this happened across the Border, it was nothing to do with the sales process and that any of the problems lie with the buyers. PIMCO approached NAMA, said it had been asked to provide payments to third parties and had been advised by Brown Rudnick and Tughans. NAMA said it talked it out of the process but PIMCO said it left it voluntarily.

Along came Cerberus which, low and behold, had been advised by the same advisers, namely, Brown Rudnick and Tughans. We heard that £7 million was paid into an Isle of Man bank account after the sale went through. In my mind, there is a very clear conflict of interest. It is for NAMA in Dublin to answer why it did not pick up on it. Why did it not set alarm bells ringing in Dublin and the head office of NAMA that one group withdrew from the sale and along came another looking to buy, with the exact same advisers and fixers that put the process in place?

NAMA said it was nothing to do with it and that it was not involved in the process. That in itself is grounds enough for an investigation. We now hear that Cerberus is tendering for Project Arrow in the South and the same process is taking place. The Government has to insist that there is a commission of investigation into NAMA to tease out all of these issues and, at the very least, the sale of Project Arrow should be cancelled until after that investigation takes place. Something is definitely very rotten in both states.

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