Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. In Ireland today, many families and citizens are facing high mortgage arrears, negative equity and paying excessive interest on their variable rate mortgages. Some struggle on while others face losing their homes, but many are looking at how NAMA disposes of land. Recently in my constituency of Longford Westmeath, NAMA disposed of 400 acres of prime agricultural land but never once was this sale advertised locally or nationally. Still, the sale managed to go through and we do not know how many people competed for that land. Does that seem right and proper? No, it certainly does not. Many people are looking now, thanks to Deputy Wallace and my own party leader, who have pursed this in recent weeks, at how Project Eagle properties were disposed of and are absolutely amazed. A portfolio of loans with a face value of €5.4 billion, for which NAMA only paid €2 billion, as the Minister of State rightly pointed out, was subsequently sold for €1.6 billion, which is a savage write down by any stretch of the imagination. We have learned about the legal advisers who were advising PIMCO, a company which was ruled out of order because of its fee structure under which large sums of money would be paid to former NAMA advisers. We also learned that £7 million sterling was found in an offshore account which was in some way related to NAMA and Project Eagle assets. It has subsequently been revealed that commercial property prices across a large part of Project Eagle loans in Belfast soared by up to 20% since the NAMA deal was signed off. Across the broader Northern commercial property market, growth has been recorded of somewhere in the region of 11% in 2014.

The Taoiseach famously said in this Chamber that Paddy wants to know.

Paddy wants to know that NAMA, which was established to acquire distressed borrowings and release the assets underpinning them to a recovering market, is obtaining the best value for taxpayers' investment. At the behest of the Minister, in excess of 800 properties are being lumped together in a single portfolio that is of such a high value that it restricts the number of potential bidders, thereby reducing competition and diminishing the value that can be achieved in the sale.

The Fianna Fáil Party has been criticised by many back bench Government party Deputies for raising this issue. It seems we should have acted instead as cheerleaders for last week's budget. Deputies have a duty and obligation to those who elected them to ensure taxpayers' money is well spent. Large numbers of senior citizens have been waiting for more than two years for knee and hip replacement operations and cataract removal procedures while others must wait for months on end to secure personal home help hours. Only this week, a woman chained herself to the gates outside the Department of Education and Skills in an effort to secure a home tuition grant for her autistic son that would enable him to avail of early education services.

It is right and proper to remove all doubt and ambiguity surrounding the Project Eagle sale. A full, independent commission of investigation that can investigate matters on both sides of the Border, North and South, is needed to determine whether everything was done above board and value for money was achieved on behalf of Paddy the taxpayer, the person who ultimately picks up the tab. A commission of investigation is the only way to achieve this.

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