Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I will be brief in my contribution. Like other colleagues I welcome Senator Darragh O'Brien to the House and congratulate Senator Prendergast on her elevation to the European Parliament. It was the intention of the outgoing Government to bring in an amendment to the National Asset Management Agency Act. I have written today to the Office of the Attorney General to ask it to investigate NAMA for breaching the law and the intention of the NAMA legislation as passed by this House in the disposal of assets under its control. There is no transparency in the current process being pursued by NAMA. This lack of transparency has been confirmed to me by people who were asked to become involved in a scam whereby the original borrower of the loan would buy back his own loan book for less than the current market value thus causing a significant loss to the taxpayer. I have sought legal opinion from the Law Library on the matter, which has confirmed my suspicions that not only has the spirit of the law been breached, but also the law and its intent as passed by this House. Sections 2 and 10 of the National Asset Management Agency Act provided that the taxpayer must be protected, but this is not the case.