State faces full probe into Nama assets sale

The Government is facing demands for a full inquiry into the sale of €5.7bn worth of assets sold by Nama in the North and millions of pounds allegedly diverted by a firm to an offshore account.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton faced questions yesterday about what the Coalition knew about the biggest sale of property in the history of the State and any alleged fee associated with it.

Mr Bruton said the Nama sale last year had been overseen by the State’s spending watchdog and that the asset management agency had at the time received assurances that no fee would be paid.

He said the first company, Pimco, interested in the sale had alerted Nama that it was aware a fee would be involved, a matter which was in turn alerted to Finance Minister Michael Noonan. Pimco was then removed from the sales process, code-named Project Eagle.

Mr Bruton said Nama then got assurances from the successful bidder, US equity firm Cerberus, that no fee would be involved in the sale of the 850 properties in Nama’s Northern loan book.

But it has been confirmed recently by Belfast-solicitor firm Tughans that one of its partners involved in the sale had diverted fees to an Isle of Man bank account. Tughans said the money was diverted withoutits knowledge.

Independent TD Mick Wallace, using Dáil privilege, told the Dáil last week that £7m (€9.8m) discovered in an audit of the account was destined for a Northern Ireland politician or party, though he did not name them.

Mr Bruton yesterday said Project Eagle had been examined by authorities.

“Nama has dealt with this in the way I outlined by open tender. It was a competitive tender. It was overseen by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s representative, it was subject to audit in the normal way and it was subject to a report back to the PAC [the Public Accounts Committee].”

He also confirmed that PAC would hear from Nama tomorrow about the deal.

However, he faced calls from the opposition in the Dáil for a full commission of investigation into the sale of the €5.7bn of assets, which were sold for just €1.6bn.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said Mr Noonan had previously called for a speeding up of the sell-off of Nama assets. He noted the Northern portfolio was sold at a discount of 72%.

Mr Martin said that following the revelations about fees diverted for Project Eagle that it now needed to be ascertained whether it fact the Irish taxpayer had received value for money.

“It is glaringly obvious that this demands a very serious, independent and objective inquiry, with compellability, into the specifics of this issue. Very serious allegations have been made about what transpired and there are many unanswered questions.”

Mr Bruton said PAC would now investigate the issues and that any fee arrangement over Project Eagle had not involved Nama.

The Fine Gael minister also pointed out that a lot of state-owned properties were sold for a portion of their value during the crash.

He also confirmed Mr Noonan, was made aware by Nama of the involvement of fees when the first company, Pimco, had expressed interest in the property deal.