Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a play on language here. Of the €74 billion that went into NAMA, what percentage ended up with foreign entities? The Committee of Public Accounts report into Project Eagle from 2016 showed that NAMA had sold 20% of its entire debt of €74 billion to one company, Cerberus.

This works out at €14.5 billion, whether one calls it loans or assets. This included Project Eagle, Project Arrow, Project Gem and Project Shift. I will not go into the fact Project Gem and Project Arrow were sold to Cerberus after the Project Eagle debacle surfaced and were sold at knockdown prices.

Can the Minister defend the agency selling a fifth of its entire portfolio to one vulture fund? I would expect NAMA to know to whom it sold its loans and assets. There appears to be some discrepancy in its statements, although the Minister may disagree with me on that.

Under section 172 of the National Asset Management Agency Act, a person who is a debtor or debtor-connected party, in relation to an acquired bank asset, is prohibited from acquiring from NAMA any acquired bank assets in relation to which default has occurred. Is the Minister concerned that the Project Nantes loan sale, which I raised with him before, is an example of this? NAMA was not aware that the purchaser, Clairvue, was based in Luxembourg nor was it aware that purchaser and the debtor, Avestus, share a director. It had to go back and investigate because it never verified its original section 172 declarations.

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