Nama welcomes Supreme Court decision

The board of National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has today welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court today which confirmed the constitutionality of the Nama act.

However, the court found that the developer Paddy McKillen should have the right to make representations to the agency before €2.1bn worth of his loans are acquired.

The court was ruling on remaining issues in the appeal taken by McKillen against the High Court's dismissal of his challenge to Nama.

In a statement this afternoon, the board of the agency said the decision eliminates any uncertainty.

"We will study the decision carefully with our legal advisors and we note the finding of the court that Mr McKillen and his companies have the right to make representations to Nama before the agency makes a decision to acquire the bank loans," said the statement.

"Nama has made important progress in the 15 months since it was approved and has an important agenda of work to progress.

"Our purpose remains that of operating as efficiently, objectively and fairly as possible in order to deal with the onerous task entrusted to us.

"I want to express our appreciation to the current and former Attorneys General, the CSSO [Chief State Solicitor’s Office], Department of Finance and our legal teams and the Nama executives for the huge amount of work which they put into this hearing to defend Nama and the Act."