Simon head says Nama ‘literally a State secret’

The new chairman of the Simon Communities of Ireland has called on Nama to disclose details of its vacant property portfolio after a minister said empty houses and apartments could be used to ease homelessness.

Former Labour senator Brendan Ryan, a lecturer in chemical engineering at Cork Institute of Technology, said Nama’s property management was “literally a State secret”.

Speaking at a Simon event on preliminary research on housing-led responses to homelessness, Jan O’Sullivan, the housing and planning minister, said the Government would issue a homeless policy statement shortly.