Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 172(3) of the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 is a legal provision preventing assets held as security for loans acquired by NAMA from being sold back to defaulting debtors or persons acting on behalf of defaulting debtors.

To ensure compliance with this section, I am advised that NAMA has a policy of obtaining written confirmation from purchasers of NAMA-secured assets which confirms that, among other things, the purchaser is not a party precluded from completing the purchase by virtue of section 172(3). I am advised that these section 172 confirmations are examined by NAMA during the later stages of a sales transaction.

Under section 7(2) of the NAMA Act, any person who intentionally, recklessly or through gross negligence provides false or inaccurate information to NAMA commits a crime. In addition, under section 6 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1938, it is a criminal offence for a declarant to make a declaration which is false or misleading.

The Deputy will be aware that section 9 of the NAMA Act provides that NAMA is independent in the performance of its functions and that I, as Minister, have no role in its commercial operations or decisions. It is not my role to become involved in the detail of NAMA’s work, nor do I have access to detailed information regarding the assets securing the loans sold as part of the Project Nantes loan sale, which NAMA is prohibited from disclosing as such detail is classified as confidential debtor information. I am therefore not in a position to comment on NAMA’s interpretation of section 172(3) for this or any other transaction.

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