Noonan challenges TDs to make Nama claims outside Dáil

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has called on Independents 4 Change TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly to repeat allegations outside the Dáil about the conduct of the Nama sale of its Northern Ireland portfolio if they

are so sure of their case.

He made his call during an at times heated debate on a Private Members’ motion by Independents 4 Change, calling for a commission of investigation into the sale of the National Asset Management Agency’s Project Eagle portfolio of 850 properties, sold for €1.6 billion to US firm Cerberus.

Independents 4 Change and Sinn Féin criticised Fianna Fáil for its decision not to support the call for a commission when the party’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath had called for such an inquiry six months ago.

They claimed he had been “got at” or had done a deal with the Government, which Mr McGrath vehemently rejected.

Mr Noonan claimed Ms Daly wanted a commission established as a "trawling exercise", and said he was reminded of Alice in Wonderland when it was either the Mad Hatter or the dormouse who said "verdict first, trial afterwards".

During the debate Ms Daly said there were a lot of questions to be answered.

Investigation

She told Mr Noonan he and the Government had resisted an investigation because “you are the one who had the power to stop it but rather than stopping it, you chose to insist that it go ahead”.

She said weeks before the deal went ahead, one of the bidders, Pimco, told Nama there was €15 million in a fixer’s fee.

“Nama told you and you insisted that the deal would go ahead.”

She said the failure of Nama to deal with this and the extent of the involvement of the Department of Finance and the Minister needed to be questioned. She asked Mr Noonan: “What did you know, what should you have known? What do you know now? What action did you take?”

Mr Noonan challenged the Independents 4 Change TDs to “make the allegations outside the House if you’re so sure of your ground”.

Earlier Mr Wallace asked if Fianna Fáil had been “got to” or had done a deal with the Government given that the party had said it would support the proposal and had brought a similar one to the Dáil six months ago.

Taxpayers

Ms Daly said Fianna Fáil was effectively saying that every jurisdiction with a partial involvement in the issue could have an investigation, except the State that “owns the assets and whose taxpayers are paying the price”.

McGrath said he wanted to assure Mr Wallace “there is no deal and we have not been got to by any powerful agencies”.

He said that a commission of investigation “would run into the sand very quickly indeed because of arrests being made in Northern Ireland”.

“It would be a breach of public trust if this House was to engage in anything that would hinder” the ongoing criminal investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency, Mr Noonan added.

There were also heated exchanges between Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty and Mr McGrath when Mr Doherty asked what arrangement had been made that "made Fianna Fáil sell out from a position it had so strongly and rightly articulated".

He was “not saying it was cash” but what deal did it do with Fine Gael “that made Fianna Fáil sell out on its principles”.

Mr McGrath accused him of “throwing dirt”.