Enda Kenny defends Nama chairman’s letter to Sipo

A report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) into the sale by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) of its entire Northern Ireland portfolio is "practically completed", according to the Taoiseach.

Enda Kenny also defended the decision by the chairman of Nama to write to the State's ethics watchdog, two years after the agency became aware of potential ethics breaches by a member of its Northern Ireland advisory board.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Kenny said the agency's chairman, Frank Daly, "was doing his duty of seeing that everything was above board in respect of the law and his responsibilities".

He said the C&AG's draft report had been completed and it was awaiting comments from Nama and the Department of Finance.

He said the report would be presented to the Public Accounts Committee for discussion on completion.

The Taoiseach was responding to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who had raised the controversy surrounding the sale by Nama of the Project Eagle portfolio to a US venture fund for €1.6 billion.

Mr Adams renewed his call for a commission of investigation into the sale and said the IBRC commission could be the model for such an investigation.

He said the role of the C&AG was “restricted and limited” and would only seek to “establish the monetary value of the transactions”.

Letter to Sipo

The Sinn Féin leader said Mr Daly’s letter to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) “rubbishes the [Taoiseach’s] notion” that “there is nothing to see” in relation to the sale of Project Eagle.

Mr Daly’s letter to Sipo stated that a member of its Northern Ireland advisory board might have contravened the Ethics in Public Office Act while serving on the board.

He said Nama needed to explain why it waited until March 2016 to write to Sipo when it was aware of the issue in March 2014.

Mr Adams said the sale involved “serious allegations of financial corruption and insider dealing - criminal offences.

“This is the people’s money that was stolen and yet these allegations are not being investigated in this State.”

However, Mr Kenny said the sale was made following an open process to the highest bidder for the portfolio’s actual value.

He said that “Nama paid no moneys to any party on this loan sale against whom allegations of wrongdoing are now being made”.

Mr Adams said Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had been briefed by Mr Daly "in full on these matters, including on the scandal of the £15 million (about €18 million) fixer fee" for the sale.

He said Mr Noonan had yet to come into the Dáil to explain why he did not halt the sales process at that time.

The Taoiseach said the C&AG was the appropriate statutory body to deal with the issue.