McKillen ‘not entitled to special treatment’

THE Attorney General has told the High Court property investor Paddy McKillen is not entitled to any “special” treatment to prevent his €2.1 billion loans being transferred to the National Assets Management Agency.

The NAMA Act 2009 was brought in as part of the state’s “unprecedented intervention” via the bank guarantee of October 2008 to support the financial system and economy but Mr McKillen’s legal challenge failed to recognise this context, Paul Gallagher said.

The state was seeking to deal with the problem at “a macro level” but Mr McKillen and his experts did not recognise the banks could not have financed his loans without the state support provided to them since 2008, he argued.