Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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150. To ask the Minister for Finance the percentage of total available development land in which NAMA has a financial interest in each of the ten strategic development zones. [39439/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, NAMA does not directly own or manage properties. NAMA has acquired loans and its role is that of a lender with claims over security for its loans, like a bank, rather than a property owner or lessor. In that capacity, NAMA holds security over properties that are owned by its debtors or, in the case of enforcement, which are managed on behalf of those debtors by duly appointed insolvency practitioners.

I am advised that, through its debtors and receivers, NAMA has an interest in lands in five of the 10 Strategic Development Zones, as set out in the table.

In particular, the Deputy will be aware of the significant office and commercial development that is being carried out in the Grand Canal and North Lotts (Dublin Docklands) SDZ, where NAMA currently holds an interest in 63% of the developable land area of 22 hectares. A key NAMA objective is to facilitate the delivery of Grade A office accommodation in the Dublin Docklands SDZ. NAMA expect that this will deliver up to 4m sq. ft. of office space and 2,000 apartments, which I am sure will prove hugely attractive to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and domestic businesses. I am advised that, to date, construction has commenced on over a third of the lands controlled by NAMA debtors or receivers, with planning permission granted on a further 22%.

In addition, the Deputy will be aware that in May 2016, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney TD, designated 34 acres of land in the Poolbeg peninsula as an SDZ. Currently Dublin City Council is in the process of preparing a Planning Scheme for the Poolbeg SDZ which will ultimately be submitted for approval to the elected members of Dublin City Council. The Poolbeg SDZ is expected to have the potential to deliver up to 3,000 homes, along with commercial and retail development. However, this will be dependent on the provision of essential infrastructure to improve access links to the area. NAMA, through its receivers, has an interest in 15 hectares of land within the Poolbeg SDZ.

The table summarises the position: