Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim buíoch as ucht an deis labhairt ar an rún atá os cóir an Dáil um tráthnóna agus mo tabhactach a thabhairt dó. Ba mhaith liom mo chuid buíochas a ghabhail le Deputy Wallace as ucht an rún a chur faoi bhráid na Dála.

For years now, Sinn Féin has been raising concerns about the sale of the National Asset Management Agency's loan books, particularly the sale and purchase process of its Northern loan book, project evil. That was a Freudian slip; I should have said Project Eagle. Three times in the past three weeks, I have called for the establishment of a commission of investigation into Project Eagle and I am glad to see a motion to that effect before the Dáil this afternoon.

The sale and purchase process of Project Eagle is the subject of serious allegations, yet the Taoiseach and his Ministers have repeatedly dodged the issue. Between May 2010 and November 2013, a member of NAMA’s Northern advisory committee is alleged to have been charging clients fees for advice relating to NAMA. It is also alleged that the same individual had an unethical working relationship with a senior NAMA executive, which gave him access to sensitive commercial information. It is further alleged he was lobbying on behalf of fee-paying clients to reduce loan repayments. In return, he would secure cash payments - so called fixer fees - which were shared with the senior NAMA executive.

When NAMA decided to sell its Northern loan book to a US vulture fund, Cerberus, the individual involved offered to disclose information relating to the value of the loans to a bidder called PIMCO. PIMCO discovered that payment of a fixer's fee of £15 million was requested and was to be paid if its bid was successful. PIMCO reported this to NAMA and withdrew from the process. NAMA's chairman, Mr. Frank Daly stated he briefed the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, in full on these matters, including on the payment of fixer's fees, which are totally irregular and illegal. The Minister accepted this but failed to suspend the Project Eagle sale process or inform the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. As he has never given an explanation, it remains unclear why he did not intervene by exercising his general powers of direction over NAMA to suspend the sales process until these matters were fully investigated. These are serious allegations of financial corruption and insider trading.

Investigations are ongoing in the North by the National Crime Agency, the Law Society and revenue and an Assembly inquiry found the Government’s approach very unhelpful. Other investigations are ongoing in the United States by the Security Exchange Commission, the FBI and other authorities. This matter is being investigated everywhere except in this state where no investigation is taking place. The Taoiseach has continuously rejected this request. We must ask why the Government is stonewalling this simple and straightforward request.

I understand Mr. John Miskelly began legal proceedings over the deal against Cerberus and Anglo Irish Bank on 21 June in the Belfast High Court. Members will recall that Mr Miskelly appeared in the BBC "Spotlight" programme which brought some of the details of this case to light. He is alleging the Project Eagle process was fraudulent from the start. It is high time that the Minister for Finance made a full statement on all of these matters and I am disappointed he did not take the opportunity to do so today.

The National Asset Management Agency has been handling billions of euro of the people's money and it should be accountable. The Fianna Fáil Party agreed with our position on this matter. In October, the party's finance spokesperson, Deputy Michael McGrath, stated: "There is simply no room whatsoever for any question marks when we talk about the sale of a State asset with a face value of over €5 billion". He went on to say: "It is also essential for the integrity of the House that a commission of investigation is established to find out the truth about the entirety of Project Eagle". What has changed?

Just two weeks ago, the Fianna Fáil leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, described the Government’s position on Project Eagle as untenable, yet despite a number of requests directly from me, his party will not now support the establishment of an investigation. The reason it gives for its position on this issue is entirely spurious and can only be explained by a desire to keep the Fine Gael Party in power. Its amendment is yet another Fianna Fáil U-turn to take pressure off its Fine Gael partners and deny the Dáil its right to hold the Government to account. This is entirely in keeping with the party's repositioning on water charges, bin charges, the national monument in Moore Street, rent certainty and returning Deputy Enda Kenny as Taoiseach. Smile they may, but I appeal to Fianna Fáil Deputies to reconsider their amendment and vote in support of the motion.

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