Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The establishment of this investigation is welcome but it should have taken place well before now. After denial and stonewalling, the Government was dragged into conceding what the public has known since this controversy first arose, which is that the Project Eagle sales process fell - to put it mildly - a long way short of what we would expect for a transaction of this scale and certain aspects of it are nothing short of deeply disturbing. Project Eagle was a £1.1 billion transaction and the Comptroller and Auditor General concluded that there was a probable loss of value to the State of up to £190 million in net present value terms because of the way it was conducted.

I would like to focus on the reasons this inquiry is being established and the answers that we want it to produce. NAMA was established as an arm's length entity, which was to be entirely immune from political involvement. Public trust in its work rested on the belief that it would operate at all times to the highest standards of corporate governance and would do everything possible to maximise the funding recouped for the people. The accumulation of evidence on Project Eagle means that there is legitimate public concern about the process, price, insider information and inappropriate political involvement. The decision to sell the Northern Ireland portfolio occurred four years into NAMA's work at a time when it was well established and the national financial emergency was over.

The sequence of events in 2013 is very concerning. In June 2013 the Minister for Finance in Northern Ireland contacted the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, to say that he had been contacted by an investor about purchasing NAMA's northern assets. Five months later a member of the Northern Ireland advisory committee resigned, effectively to get involved in the process, and a further month later Project Eagle was launched.

While that sales process was under way, the Minister, Deputy Noonan met one of the bidders in a meeting which he has defended as appropriate but which the Committee of Public Accounts decided by majority vote was procedurally inappropriate. As was addressed at great length in another inquiry, a Minister meeting a bidder during a closed and arm's length sale of a public asset is very unusual, especially if the Government has no role in setting the policy or regulatory framework which impacts on the asset. Once the sale went through, there have been consistent claims, including by the Comptroller and Auditor General, that the process was flawed and resulted in a major loss for the State.

I welcome that the commission will have at its disposal the appropriate independent commercial and financial expertise to inform its investigation. Given the conflict between the Comptroller and Auditor General and NAMA on technical issues around the discounting of cashflows, issues which are indeed fundamental to the overall conclusion reached by the Comptroller and Auditor General, having this expertise at the commission's disposal is essential.

What has been especially striking over the past year has been the aggression - we witnessed it a number of weeks ago in this House when the Minister, Deputy Noonan attacked the independent Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts - with which the Government has defended not just the legality but also the propriety of its political actions. Such actions include a number of discussions on a North-South basis and the Minister for Finance's meeting the bidder. The Government has sought to frustrate and dismiss concerns about a potentially undermined process and, indeed, suspicious political involvement. As the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, has said tonight, jurisdictional issues are a major problem in this inquiry. Given that the DUP cannot lodge a petition of concern by itself, it is our hope that when the assembly and Executive get back to work, the majority will take steps to support the investigation which it is hoped this House will establish shortly. I also call on the Government to write formally to the Northern Ireland Executive, assembly and Secretary of State seeking their full co-operation in all matters pertaining to this investigation.

It may well be that there are other transactions in NAMA which deserve deeper public scrutiny. I have publicly raised questions about Project Tolka, for example. There is an absolute need to get to the bottom of the Project Eagle process and outturn in the first instance. The terms of reference provide for further modules in respect of other transactions, if necessary. I welcome the statement by the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, that any issues identified during the interim report, which will be furnished to the Government after three months, will be addressed. It is to be hoped we can understand that as a firm commitment from the Government. That would certainly be the desire of the Fianna Fáil Party.

I wish Mr. Justice Cooke and all involved in the commission team well in their efforts to get some answers to fundamental questions that remain outstanding in respect of the Project Eagle transaction.

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