Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak on this issue and thank the Minister for Finance and Taoiseach for the briefings provided to Deputies on the establishment of a commission of investigation into the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. I attended two such briefings with officials.

I am surprised by the appointment of the named eminent justice to chair the commission of investigation. A question that arose at the briefings I attended and in other briefings, specifically the one on the commission of investigation into An Garda Síochána, was where we will stop with inquiries and tribunals. Only last week, we were discussing legislation dealing with issues arising from the Flood tribunal. We are in a tribunal frenzy. This is like having a bad rust on old Morris Minor car - animal feed cars were worse as they rusted like hell - in that it is bad for the body politic. It is unclear if the tribunals and inquiries have been of value. Nobody has been held accountable. Many of the recommendations have been challenged and I understand more will be challenged. Tribunals and inquiries allow the white collar class and the big people to avoid facing trial as they would in other countries. When tribunals are set up the fat cats get fatter - Deputy O'Callaghan is not here - because they are let loose in the Law Library and get the industry going. The ball is thrown in like at a match in Croke Park that never ends. That is what is wrong with the tribunals and I do not have any faith in them.

I have never had any faith in the National Asset Management Agency either. The comments I made on the night we discussed the legislation setting up NAMA are on record. The then Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, was sitting in the seat occupied by the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe. I fundamentally disagreed and differed with the Minister and described the establishment of NAMA as like letting a wild animal out in the woods with no idea where it would end up. By God, I have been proved right. The legislation on NAMA was so tight that Deputies could not interfere and were afraid to even write to the agency about issues for a long time.

We had Project Eagle here, project jackdaw in Clonmel and many other projects around the place. There is an amount of underhandedness and skulduggery. Ireland is too small for something like this because everybody knows everybody else. Even the people who had done a runner and left the country are back and own the land that went into NAMA. What in God's name is going on or are the lunatics really running the asylum? These people are back in business. People contacted me to say they could not be in business. Auctioneers are acting on their behalf and are now selling the land that went into NAMA, which was supposed to be of benefit to the State. Planning permission for 100 houses was granted in my village. Why did we not get some social capital or benefit from NAMA?

While the terms of reference of the commission of investigation are welcome, in particular regarding whether the disposal strategy for the sale of NAMA's Northern Ireland loan portfolio was appropriate, I have concerns about another matter, namely, the eminent justice who has been chosen to chair the commission. I received an email this evening from a man I know well, Mr. Seamus Maye, in which he states that Mr. Justice Cooke’s shareholding in a defendant company, CRH plc, was not declared by him to plaintiffs in two cases during 2010, 2011 and 2012. Arising from Mr. Justice Cooke's failure to disclose his shareholding in that case, there are now-----

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