Nama ruled a public body under access law

A five-judge Supreme Court has unanimously rejected arguments by the National Assets Management Agency that it is not a public authority subject to freedom of environmental information requests.

Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell said Nama was established under statute which affords it substantial powers, of compulsory acquisition; of enforcement; to apply to the High Court to appoint receivers; and to set aside dispositions. Established in response to an unprecedented financial crisis, Nama’s scope and scale was “exceptional” and, if it were not, it would be unable to carry out the important public functions assigned to it, he added.

The judgment was given in a dispute about Nama’s status which arose after a journalist, Gavin Sheridan, sought information in 2010 from Nama under a freedom of information instrument known as an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). When Nama refused, Mr Sheridan referred the matter to the commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, who ruled in September 2011 that Nama should be subject to information requests under EIR as it was a public authority under the 2007 European (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations.