Nama officials warn PAC chair of ‘dossier’

The Dáil public accounts committee chair has claimed Nama officials warned him they had a “dossier” on his previous comments about the group at the same time they issued a clear legal threat over the findings of the PAC’s Project Eagle report.

Fianna Fáil TD Sean Fleming revealed the situation — denied by Nama last night — during a heated exchange over separate legal threats from Finance Minister Michael Noonan amid unprecedented claims the committee is at risk of being “politicised”.

Just hours after Mr Fleming told the Dáil on Wednesday night that Finance Minister Michael Noonan threatened to injunct the PAC due to its report’s findings against him, the PAC chair said he was not the only person who pressured the committee.

Under privilege, he said the chair of Nama also threatened to sue, that another Nama official said the State property group had a “dossier” of previous negative comments Mr Fleming made stretching back years at the same time as they sought to limit the Project Eagle report’s findings.

“In my conversation with the chairman of Nama [Frank Daly] he did mention to me the issue of legal advice being considered.

“I was told Nama had a dossier prepared of all my previous comments on the C&AG over several period of years,” he said.

Mr Fleming separately said “senior” Oireachtas officials told him he may have to limit the report’s findings due to the legal pressure being placed on the group.

“Senior people in this House also made it very clear to me that if they weren’t happy with the wording of our report they would prevent it from being issued and would take it to the committee on procedure and privileges,” he said, later clarifying this referred to a rarely used standing order where a report’s legal standing is questioned.

The comments led to a furious reaction from PAC members, with unaligned Independent TD Catherine Connolly saying the Nama dossier threat is “truly shocking” and Fianna Fáil TD Marc Mac Sharry saying it amounted to Nama saying “we’ve got the goods on you”.

However, in a letter to Mr Fleming last night, Nama chair Frank Daly said the State property group “does not, and never had, any such dossier relating to you or to any other person”.

The pressure came to light during a linked discussion on Mr Fleming’s Wednesday night Dáil revelation Finance Minister Michael Noonan threatened to sue the PAC over the report.

While the Department of Finance claimed the threat was during a “friendly” conversation and did not imply a legal case was pending, Mr Fleming repeated the view yesterday, saying: “The conversation ended with Minister Noonan saying you know I can injunct you.”

While criticising Mr Fleming for not revealing the situation until now, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and David Cullinane, Labour’s Alan Kelly, Ms Connolly and Mr Mac Sharry hit out at the “disgusting” scenario and demanded Mr Noonan apologise.

However, Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan instead described Mr Fleming’s Dáil remarks as “opportunistic” and stressed the claim is “alleged” and based on “political manoeuvres” within the PAC, provoking an angry response from other members.

“Political manoeuvres? That is outrageous,” said Ms Connolly.