Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said on Monday, I have been made aware of very serious allegations concerning the deliberate undervaluing of loans at pre-sale, with a view to turning over a profit for public relations and political reasons and conferring advantage to certain bidders. It is a very serious situation if taxpayers are to be on the hook for the sale of performing loans at a discounted rate to preferred bidders. In fact, it is so serious that it requires an independent investigation and a statement from the Minister for Justice and Equality or the Minister for Finance. I understand the Garda Commissioner has had this information since early December. If even part of these allegations is true, it will undermine the entire operation of NAMA.

I have come into possession of documentation which I will lodge with the Garda Síochána this afternoon so that it can be dealt with by the proper authorities. The following will give colleagues a flavour of this documentation, without mentioning any names:

These people from NAMA have lost the plot. They forgot about the legislation and when Fine Gael came into power they forgot about transparency and freedom of information, which they spouted before the election. Senior people in NAMA got it into their heads that they had to make a profit and they nearly drove me to suicide on valuations. They were hell bent on destroying the banks on valuations so that they could be shown in a good light later. There were perfectly good loans written down on the banks to keep the NAMA dream alive. I was the one they relied on to get massive low valuations. I destroyed people with those valuations.