Sir, – The recent debacle concerning calls for various inquiries into Nama dealings is amusing. It appears that all sides are perpetuating the pretence that Nama is somehow an independent entity separate from Government control or scrutiny, so that statutory, non-statutory or Dáil committee inquiries are essential.
The broad effect of the Nama Act is to give the Government, through the Minister for Finance, complete direct control and power over all aspects of Nama dealings.
Under section 14 of the 2009 Nama Act, the Minister “may give a direction in writing” to Nama concerning the purposes of the Act. Without prejudice to the generality of such broad power, the same section 14 goes on to specifically give power to the Minister to make such directions in relation to the purposes set out in section 2 of the Act, among which purposes include “to protect the interests of taxpayers”.
Going back to section 14, it also makes it clear that “Nama shall comply with a direction given by the Minister”.
From this it seems clear that there may be no need for any lengthy or expensive inquiry, North or South. All that may need to be done to establish the various truths concerning any questioned sales, valuations and commission payments is for the Dáil to vote to direct the Government to direct the Minister to direct Nama to provide all documentation to the Minister within a short period. The Minister can then hand all this over to whatever “independent” person or persons may be suitable to produce a report to the Dáil’s satisfaction and that of the people.
Were Nama not to comply, the Minister under the Nama Act has the absolute power to fire the entire board and put in place a new board that would comply with his directions.
The Dáil in its wisdom has given the Minister more than sufficient powers in the Nama Act.
It is down to the Dáil now to insist these powers are used “to protect the interests of taxpayers”.
Quick and low-cost inquiries are certainly within those interests! – Yours, etc,
FRANK HANNON,
Solicitor,
Cork.
Sir, – Frank Daly, chairman of Nama, criticises the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) report, and writes that "The C&AG declined to meet the Nama board or the experts who supported us" ("Nama is right and the C&AG is wrong", Opinion & Analysis, September 15th). In case readers may be under the impression that no meetings at all took place, it may be helpful to refer to page 26 of the C&AG's report, which details five separate meetings between Nama and the C&AG between January and April 2016 to discuss drafts of the report. – Yours, etc,
RONAN FAHY,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands.