Lenihan adds 2 more to NAMA board

FORMER Revenue chairman Frank Daly and outgoing IMF consultant Stephen Seelig have been appointed to the board of NAMA by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

Mr Daly will be chairman of NAMA and will also step down from his current role as public interest director at Anglo Irish Bank.

Mr Seelig, meanwhile, will join the nine-person board in May, following his retirement from the IMF but will provide the Government’s new bad bank project with advice before that.

The new board will also include already announced NAMA chief executive, Brendan McDonagh and incoming National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) boss, John Corrigan.

The remaining members of the board will be chartered accountant, Peter Stewart; former AIG Global Investments chief financial officer, Eilish Finan; former Bank of Ireland senior manager and Financial Services Ombudsman council member, Michael Connolly; Dublin Transportation Office chairman, Willie Soffe and Brian McEnery – who is a senior partner with accounting firm, Horwath Bastow Charleton.

Mr Lenihan – who confirmed more than 800 applications had been received for board membership – said it was of “critical importance” the members of the NAMA board are “suitably qualified and experienced to ensure NAMA can discharge its functions under the legislation in an efficient and effective manner”.

The minister added: “I am satisfied that following an exhaustive selection process, the high calibre of the appointments will mean the board has the right people to steer NAMA towards its goals, including restoring stability to the Irish financial system and improving credit availability.”

On the markets, the ISEQ got in on the act of many international markets rallying ahead of the Christmas break, by gaining nearly 2.6% to close at just over 3,000 points.

Each of the Irish banking stocks had a good day – AIB up by nearly 19% – or 19c – at €1.23; Bank of Ireland gaining just under 11.3% (14c) to close at €1.35 and Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) up by just over 1% – or 3c – at €3.07. The share prices of both AIB and Bank of Ireland were knocked on Monday due to comments by Central Bank chief, Patrick Honohan about them potentially needing further Government funding.

However, the big climber in Dublin was outside of the financials; bookmaker Paddy Power, jumped by €1.10 to €24.