Noonan talks with Cerberus ‘inappropriate’

Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s meeting with US firm Cerberus just days before the Project Eagle Nama deal was “not appropriate” and implied “special treatment” was being given at the taxpayers’ expense.

A report into the €1.6bn scandal has drawn the stark conclusion and raised serious concerns over how internal Nama conflicts of interest surrounding adviser Frank Cushnahan were tackled — possibly paving the way for another state inquiry.

Despite repeated insistence that the then coalition did nothing wrong during the April 2014 sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland portfolio, a draft version of the Dáil public accounts committee’s 85-page report, seen by the Irish Examiner, has called into question the high- profile deal.