Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 May 2015
26. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance his plans for making the National Asset Management Agency more accountable, and for eventually winding it down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17382/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am advised that the NAMA Chief Executive, in his opening address to the Public Accounts Committee on 18 December 2014, stated that NAMA is aiming to redeem a cumulative 80% (€24 billion) of its senior debt by the end of 2016 and that it hopes that it will have redeemed all of it by the end of 2018. He stated that those targets were predicated on conditions in the Irish market remaining favourable and on NAMA being in a position to retain sufficient specialist staff to enable it to generate the optimal financial return from the realisation of its residual loan portfolio.
The Deputy may be aware that the NAMA Board has also undertaken to facilitate the timely and coherent delivery of key Grade A office space, retail and residential space within the Dublin Docklands strategic development zone and Dublin's Central Business District and to maximise the delivery of residential housing units in areas of most need. Given that these commitments were agreed with NAMA only in July 2014, it is too early to speculate as what date in the future NAMA will have made sufficient progress on its objectives as to warrant consideration of its dissolution.
As regards accountability, it is important to point out that NAMA is already subject to a high level of public accountability compared to other commercial bodies, including commercial bodies in the State sector.
Its Annual Report and Financial Statements are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. In addition, NAMA is also required to submit to me an Annual Statement by 30 September each year setting out its proposed objectives for the following financial year, the scope of activities to be undertaken, its strategies and policies and its proposed use of resources.
NAMA is also required to report to me on a quarterly basis giving detailed information about its loans, its financing arrangements and its income and expenditure. These reports, which also include other information specified under Section 55 of the NAMA Act, track progress on a quarterly basis. I am obliged to lay such reports before the Oireachtas and I endeavour to do so on a timely basis.
The Chairman and Chief Executive are also accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) and other Oireachtas committees and to give evidence to those committees whenever required to do so. Furthermore, there have been numerous Parliamentary Questions addressed to me on NAMA-related issues and the associated replies are on the Oireachtas record.
NAMA's accounts are comprehensively audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, who has a permanent team of officers based in the Agency with unrestricted access to all its records and files. If there is concern about a specific aspect of NAMA's work, it is within the power of the Comptroller and Auditor General to scrutinise any aspect of it. The Comptroller and Auditor General has already produced three special reports on NAMA's activities and they have been broadly positive in their assessment of how NAMA is managing its complex business.
Against this backdrop, I do not accept that there is a need to make NAMA more accountable than is already the case.
