Michael Noonan defends Nama funding

Nama’s funding to debtors and receivers as it aims to help finance 20,000 new homes is “at appropriate market rates of interest”, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said.

Following the announcement last December of Nama’s plan to finance the building of the homes, a complaint was submitted to the European Commission’s Competition Directorate by a number of property developers, who claimed the financing by the Government agency raised issues about state aid.

The five builders – New Generation Homes, MKN Properties, David Daly, Paddy McKillen and Michael O’Flynn - argued when the State received EU approval in 2009 to establish Nama the goal of the agency was to help repair the balance sheets of the banks, and the agency has now gone beyond its remit.