NAMA will get ministerial guidelines

The Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, has told the Dáil that the legislation on the National Asset Management Agency provides for a Minister for Finance to give guidelines to the agency.

Mr Lenihan said that in the interests of transparency those guidelines will be published.

He said he agreed with the Opposition that disclosure of such information was important.

Mr Lenihan has also undertaken to consult with the Opposition parties about the names of those to be appointed to the board of NAMA.

He said he intended to fully disclose all the names of those being considered for appointment to the board and he expected the Opposition parties to give him the names of those they would like appointed.

He also intended to put in place a structure for such disclosure of names, which would lead to an agreed body.

And he said he would amend the Bill at Report stage to provide for two members of the Oireachtas to be observers at the Audit Committee of NAMA.

Earlier, the Opposition asked the Minister to clarify the mechanism by which profits would be paid out to private investors in the Special Purpose Vehicle upon NAMA's dissolution.

Labour's Joan Burton said the payment of profits would contradict Section 58 of the Bill, which says that remaining assets would be transferred to the Minister, or paid into the Exchequer.

Mr Lenihan said the profits would be paid on the terms of an Irish Government bond of 5.9%.

He said they would be paid out on profits at the end of the year, as per the terms of any business.

Deputy Burton pointed out that the Minister would have no recourse to claw back profits from the early years if NAMA went bust in the latter years of its existence.

Fine Gael's Kieran O'Donnell asked the Minister to outline what the €100m from private investors would be specifically used for and who would they be.