Nama inquiry likely as Kenny seeks to meet Wallace over claims

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has asked to meet Independent TD Mick Wallace over his call for a commission of inquiry into Project Eagle, the sale of Nama's Northern Ireland property portfolio.

Yesterday, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams met Mr Wallace separately to discuss his call.

The Wexford TD was accompanied at the meetings by solicitor Aidan Eames.

Mr Wallace declined to comment last night. However, Leinster House sources confirmed that active consideration was being given to setting up some form of inquiry into aspects of the running of the National Asset Management Agency.

There is a growing acceptance in the Government that an inquiry into Nama is inevitable given the seriousness of the allegations being advanced by Mr Wallace.

Project Eagle was the 2014 sale of the agency’s Northern Ireland portfolio of some 850 properties with a loan book value of £4.5 billion (€5.3 billion). It was sold to Cerberus, a US-based investment company, for £1.24 billion.

Dysfunctional

However, since then, Mr Wallace revealed that £5 million had been held in an Isle of Man bank account, allegedly as a so-called fixer’s fee enabling the deal to go through.

The UK's National Crime Agency and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, combined with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are investigating the deal.

Several people involved in the sale have been arrested, including two former Nama officials.

Mr Wallace wrote to the Central Bank last month to report “possible criminal offences” involved in the Project Eagle deal.

Speaking last night in the Dáil, where he has raised the issue at least eight times in the past year, Mr Wallace referred to Nama as “dysfunctional” and questioned the honesty of some of its dealings.

He claimed that investment funds operating in the housing market in Ireland were “in some instances run by people whose strength was built on ill-gotten gains”.