Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I, too, have concerns about the establishment of this commission, but we are willing to support it. The Committee of Public Accounts has published a report that compels us to look further into the differences it outlined between the Comptroller and Auditor General's office, NAMA and the Minister.

Like Deputy Catherine Murphy, I have concerns about the mechanism of using commissions. We have seen the legal knots that we can get ourselves tied up in with such a process. It tends to be legacy oriented rather than related to current and urgent issues and problems with the process, expense and many other issues often arise.

I have mentioned a specific concern at various stages along the way, in that one of the key issues regarding this investigation into Project Eagle seems to be whether individual staff members within NAMA in the Republic were compromised by what was uncovered regarding Mr. Cushnahan and his claims that he was able to influence officials here. In the absence of the UK's National Crime Agency coming to any conclusion in its inquiries, which is probably the best way to put it, into the role of Mr. Ronnie Hanna in that regard, it is difficult to know how the commission can effectively take on its task. It has been almost a year since Mr. Hanna started helping the UK authorities with their inquiries, as they say. The chairman of NAMA, Mr. Daly, has indicated that there has been no indication of charges being laid against Mr. Hanna. That there has been no further charges makes it difficult for us to set out terms of reference or to know the scale of what we are inquiring into, given that we do not know the conclusion of the National Crime Agency's investigation. That agency has the ability to examine computer and other records in a way that is more insightful than anything we have seen to date.

I must express another concern. As much attention needs to be applied to the management of the remaining assets. Deputy Catherine Murphy referred to real-time investigations. I would love for us to concentrate on the role of NAMA in the building of 20,000 housing units. We are in a housing crisis and I understand the majority of those units to be in the Dublin area and due to be completed within the next three years. I have a slight concern about the nature of commissions of inquiry, in that the legalistic force around this commission might distract from this key task for NAMA in its remaining years of existence. I seek an assurance that, wherever this process takes us, we manage the remaining land assets that NAMA has access to in an effective way.

In that regard, we seem to be restricted in a way that was not included in the original NAMA legislation. There was an interesting debate in the Dáil today on the development of Cherrywood, where NAMA had control over a large portfolio of land and loans. Similarly, the recommended strategic development zone, SDZ, at the Poolbeg site has just been completed. In my understanding of the NAMA legislation, section 12(8) should have provided us with much greater flexibility regarding how NAMA uses its landbank, particularly in urban areas where there is a critical housing need. I am wary that the focus on the Project Eagle inquiry does not divert from that remaining critical task for NAMA in the roll-out of other assets.

That said, we support the inquiry and wish the judge well in his work. It is important that he address within the three-month period some of the issues that I have raised, in particular an update on the National Crime Agency, which might influence the commission's work one way or the other. Whatever else happens, we should not get bogged down in a long, multi-annual, multimillion euro investigation process that provides us with no more clarity than the Committee of Public Accounts did in the first place.

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