Stormont puts pressure on Nama to give evidence

Stormont has demanded that Finance Minister Michael Noonan put pressure on Nama to give evidence to a probe in the North of the agency’s sale of the Project Eagle loan portfolio.

Belfast Assembly leaders branded Nama’s attitude to its inquiry as “insulting” after senior figures refused to attend hearings being conducted by its finance committee into the agency’s controversial €1.5bn sale of its Northern property portfolio last year.

The chairman of Stormont’s finance committee, Daithi McKay, warned that he would use compellability powers if Nama did not attend to answer its questions.

“I take it as an insult to this committee that Nama officials will not be sending anyone to the committee to hear members’ concerns,” Mr McKay said.

Politicians in the North have called for Mr Noonan to step into the row and strongly advise Nama officials to give evidence.

The PSNI is investigating claims made in the Dáil by Independent TD Mick Wallace that €9.8m from fees for the Nama property deal ended up in an offshore account in the Isle of Man as a planned payment for a politician or party in the North. Nama has denied any wrongdoing.

In a separate development, Mr Wallace has said he will give gardaí the name of the firm at the centre of fresh Dáil allegations he made about Nama.

He said this week a Nama official had sought corrupt payments of €30,000 from a construction firm as he again called for an independent inquiry into Nama.

“I think it is really unfortunate that the Government does not have an appetite to serve the public interest here because only a commission of investigation, an independent one, is going to satisfy that,” Mr Wallace told RTÉ.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Mr Wallace should have gone to the gardaí and the public accounts committee with his concerns rather than raise them in the Dáil.

Mr Wallace said going to the PAC would be “pointless”.

“The PAC have done some good work but it does not have the mechanism to hold Nama to account,” he said. “We need to set up an organisation and have some law enforcement from abroad.”

The Stormont finance committee is redrawing its terms of reference after concerns were raised by the British National Crime Agency, which is investigating the offshore account claims, that any future trial would not be prejudiced.

An independent audit of the law firm involved in the Nama deal discovered that €9.8m had been diverted into the Isle of Man account.