Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Many of the general points have been made. I will not go over them except to say that it is utterly unacceptable not to have a complete investigation into all matters pertaining to NAMA so that we can get to the bottom of what has gone on with the vast amount of assets, loans and property for which it has been responsible, and whether it has served the public interest in how it has managed and disposed of those assets, loans and so on.

Obviously, Deputy Wallace has played a leading role in exposing issues and scandals relating to Project Eagle. Enough has been said - others will say it, let us put it that way. It is extraordinary that the whole process was not stopped when it was drawn to the attention of NAMA down here and the Minister for Finance that fixers' fees were being paid and that corruption was likely to be at work in the disposal of NAMA assets to vulture funds. That alone requires an investigation. As has already been said, even if NAMA turns the €2 billion profit it claims, the people of the country will take a €40 billion hit on all of this. Talking about NAMA turning a profit is nonsense. We have taken a €40 billion hit and our country has been crucified.

I want to raise a specific set of questions.

I do not have all the answers, but I want to put this into the domain of issues that need to be examined. I received the folder before me on Monday in my office. It is a very detailed folder about Spencer Dock, a site owned by CIE that was to be developed by Treasury Holdings. I rang someone in NAMA today to try to get the par value of the original loans pertaining to the site and they could not give me the answer. They said they might get back to me. We are talking about a figure in the hundreds of millions of euro. That site is now commencing development again and it is being talked about as a €600 million development.

When I asked them on the telephone NAMA would not confirm who bought the site. We know from the National Asset Management Agency Act that the original developers were not supposed to get back the sites pertaining to their loans. The original developer was Treasury Holdings. It was reported in October of last year that Johnny Ronan, formerly of Treasury Holdings, was the preferred bidder in the bidding process, which was launched in February 2016. That site owned by CIE was put on the market at a guide price of €50 million, but CIE had an arrangement with Treasury Holdings. That arrangement was seriously questioned and criticised at the time by the then Minister, former Deputy Mary O'Rourke, and subsequently by former Deputy Pat Rabbitte. In fact, a report was ordered by the then Minister, Mary O'Rourke, into the entire deal between CIE and Treasury Holdings on the grounds that she and others believed that serious questions arose as to whether the public interest had been served in the deal that had been done between CIE and Treasury Holdings as all CIE would get from its site was 17% of the sale value of any development or 17% of the rent. The rest was to go to Treasury Holdings, Johnny Ronan, Richard Barrett and so on. They went into NAMA owing €2.6 billion in total in terms of Treasury Holdings, and €1.67 billion went into NAMA.

With regard to my first question, Johnny Ronan exited NAMA apparently paying off his €250 million debt, but he now has the site again. That figure of €250 million is not €1.6 billion. I do not know the exact breakdown of Treasury Holdings debt, but he has the site again. The guide price for that six acre site was €50 million. Comparisons with similar sites currently on the open market suggest one should be paying about €20 million per acre, which is €120 million, not the reported €42.5 million that Ronan, backed by Colony, a big investment fund which refinanced Ronan's loans, is reported to have paid, although I could not get the answer from NAMA when I rang this morning, which I find extraordinary. They said they could not tell me how much was paid for the site or who bought it but it was reported in October that it was sold for €42.5 million and that Johnny Ronan, backed by Colony, bought it. If that is true and if the comparable prices per acre are in the region of €20 million, that means NAMA sold a site worth €120 million for €42.5 million. That is shocking, and the developer who now has it is the developer who originally went into NAMA when Treasury Holdings was taken over by NAMA.

On the valuations, in 2002, the value per acre in the Docklands was €8 million to €14 million. It is very reasonable to assume, therefore, given the massive surge in property values since then, that €20 million is a reasonable valuation.

The last question that must be answered in regard to this-----

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