The North’s Finance Minister has released further information relating to the £1.24 billion sale of Nama’s former Northern Ireland portfolio to the Assembly’s finance committee who are conducting an inquiry into the transaction.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said on Wednesday: “As pledged, I have reviewed the material provided to the previous committee. In the interests of transparency and public confidence the department has now provided the committee with a further set of papers with the majority of redactions removed, where that has been possible within the department’s data protection obligations.”
Mr Ó Muilleoir said this material included information that he believed to be “in the public interest”.
However a Department of Finance spokesperson said it will not make any of the latest papers public before the finance committee has had the opportune to consider them – and when and if the papers are published will be a matter solely for the committee.
Claire Hanna, the deputy chair person of the finance committee, has previously said that the committee’s inquiry into the Project Eagle sale had been “stymied by a lack of cooperation” including from the Department of Finance.
Earlier this week the Finance Minister told the Northern Ireland Assembly during his first question time that he viewed the “Nama scandal as an abomination”.
“The public is entitled to know if anyone benefitted from the misery of so many people - people caught in negative equity and many people who did lose properties.
“Those of us in the Department of Finance and other bodies here will do our best to provide the information. My pledge remains the same that any information that is relevant to the Nama inquiry should be released to the committee,” Mr Ó Muilleoir said.
The minister has said he believes that it is time for the Irish government to do more in relation to uncovering all of the details relating to the Nama sale of its Northern portfolio.
Mr Ó Muilleoir had his first official meeting with his counterpart Michael Noonan in Dublin on Wednesday.
But neither party commented on whether the Project Eagle sale was on the table during what the North’s Finance Minister described as a “positive first meeting”.
“We touched on a range of issues including projects of mutual benefit including the A5, the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor and the Narrow Water Bridge.
“I am confident we can continue to encourage collaboration on many fronts not least through the cross-border bodies and by developing the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor and the northwest gateway,” Mr Mr Ó Muilleoir said.
Meanwhile Michael Noonan also described his meeting with the North’s first Sinn Féin Finance Minister as “positive”.
“I look forward to keeping in touch and working well together on matters of mutual interest,” he added.
