PAC TDs accuse Nama of being political tool

Deputies at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) accused Nama of becoming a political tool as it was revealed the latest appointee to the Nama board was a Fine Gael trustee.

Independent TD Shane Ross criticised Nama for failing to mention that the last member appointed to its board is a trustee of Fine Gael.

The appointee was Mari Hurley, who was appointed in April, and will join a former Fine Gael director of elections in Minister for Finance Michael Noonan’s constituency, Brian McEnerny, on the board.

Mr Ross told the Nama chairman Frank Daly that he should have listed Ms Hurley’s political connections on her CV that they listed in their annual report as it would alert people to her connections.

Mr Daly said that he had no power in appointing people to the board of Nama as it was a function of the minister of finance.

“Ms Hurley has the requisite skills, expertise and experience to be a great asset to the board of Nama and to the taxpayer and the minister is grateful she accepted this position,” he said.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald alleged that Nama’s rejection of the comptroller and auditor general recommendation that Nama adopt a target for an overall rate of return for the disposal of assets was politically motivated.

The Controller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy, had recommended in his report that the agency set a target for the rate of return the agency would aim to achieve from the disposal of its loans, rental income and the disposal of assets seized through insolvency.

Ms McDonald said that this is a reasonable suggestion that has been made by an office that has constitutional powers to make recommendations on corporate governance. She accused the agency of bending to the political will of the minister.

“In whatever interaction you have had with the Minister of Finance that you have picked up on a political signal to wind things up quickly, you would use the term expeditiously, and on that basis you would give that prioirity over what I would believe to be a very reasonable recommendation by the comptroller and auditor general and one that would be in the broader interests of the agency and the taxpayer,” she said.

Mr Daly said that it had been a decision taken by the board of Nama, taken without consulting with the minister, that had led to the rejection of the comptroller and auditor general recommendation.

“I have never discussed with the minister the comptroller and auditor general’s recommendation for an overall rate of return and from my point of view, that was a consideration by the Nama board and a conclusion and never has been discussed with the minister during the process of the report or in our response to the report,” he said.

During the course of the marathon questioning in front of the PAC, it emerged that Nama had made a loss of €200m in its disposal of the Northern Ireland portfolio of loans. Under questioning form the chairman of the PAC, Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness, the CEO of Nama, Brendan McDonagh, admitted that they had lost up to €400m on the sale which had been offset by €200m that they had collected in rents. “We probably paid the banks in the region of €2bn for that portfolio. The speculation is that we sold it for €1.6bn. In the meantime we probably had collected about €200m worth of income on that portfolio while the assets were there and also the asset value had fallen from the date of acquisition because the property market had declined further,” he said.