Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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273. To ask the Minister for Finance if he has ever applied section 227 of the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009; and if he has, if he will publish the relevant reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28598/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As has been referred to in numerous responses to Parliamentary Questions, recent examples being Parliamentary Question No. 230 on June 30th 2015 and Parliamentary Question No. 133 on 23rd June 2015, and as was widely publicised at the time of its publication, through press conferences and broad media coverage, my officials have indeed produced a special report on NAMA's activities in compliance with Section 227, subsection 3, of the NAMA Act. This report was published and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 16th July 2014.

Following the completion of the report, and taking into account what NAMA has achieved to date, my officials concluded that:

- NAMA has made significant progress in achieving its overall objectives.

- Based on NAMA's performance to date and its financial projections in light of the strength of current investor interest in Ireland, NAMA is well positioned to achieve its objectives.

- As a result, NAMA's continuation is necessary to achieve these objectives.

Section 227(3) of the NAMA Act requires as soon as may be after 31 December 2012 and every 5 years after that while NAMA continues to be in existence, the Minister shall assess the extent to which NAMA has made progress toward achieving its overall objectives, and decide whether continuation of NAMA is necessary having regard to the purposes of this Act.

I would encourage those with an interest in NAMA's progress to date to read the Section 227 Report as well as the C&AG's special reports on NAMA and NAMA's quarterly and annual reports as they are each a rich source of information on NAMA's activity from inception.

The Departments of Finance Section 227 Report is available via the following link:

Section 227(1) also empowers the Minister to direct NAMA to report to him or her regarding progress with regard to the achievement of NAMA's purposes and requires the Minister to lay any such report, when produced, before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

To date, I have not yet deemed it necessary to apply Section 227(1) given the strong working relationship between my Department and NAMA and the many other oversight provisions contained within the NAMA Act 2009.

In accordance with Section 54, NAMA's Annual Report and Financial Statements are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The level of disclosure in NAMA's Annual Report and Financial Statements is comprehensive and professional. I would encourage anyone interested in the workings and performance of NAMA who have not yet read these reports to take the time to do so as they detail the Agency's  performance each year.

NAMA is also required to report to me on a quarterly basis giving detailed information about its loans, its financing arrangements and its income and expenditure. These reports, which also include other information specified under Section 55 of the NAMA Act, track NAMA's progress on a quarterly basis and are also laid before the Oireachtas.

In addition, under Section 53 of the NAMA Act, NAMA is also required to submit to me an Annual Statement by 30 September each year setting out its proposed objectives for the following financial year, the scope of activities to be undertaken, its strategies and policies and its proposed use of resources. This Statement is also laid before the Oireachtas.

The Annual and Quarterly Reports, Annual Statements, along with many other pertinent publications are available from NAMA's website from the following link:

In addition to its annual financial audits, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in accordance with Section 226 of the NAMA Act, also carries out periodic reviews of NAMA some of which assess particular themes and others which  assess the extent to which the Agency is meeting its objectives. The findings of these reviews were published in the following reports, each of which was also laid before the Oireachtas.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's progress reports are available on both the NAMA and C&AG websites.Section 227 is one of a number of sections within the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 which provides for oversight and publication of reports regarding NAMA's performance.