Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has told the Dáil he will set up an Oireachtas Committee to scrutinise NAMA. He was responding to amendments from FG and Labour calling for greater oversight of NAMA.
Brian Lenihan said he will contact the chief whip to prepare a resolution to establish the committee.
Mr Lenihan said the new committee is not being put into the NAMA legislation as it is not desirable to do so when the Government is talking about reforming the numbers of committees.
He said Oireachtas scrutiny of NAMA is desirable, but not Oireachtas oversight as this would interfere with the board who manage NAMA.
The Minister said he accepted an Oireachtas Committee would of be considerable assistance in scrutinising the operations of NAMA. He said the Opposition will be consulted as part of this process.
The Minister said he accepted that reports will be quarterly.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael's Richard Bruton has told the Dáil that the Special Purpose Vehicle, which will manage and dispose of assets and will be privately controlled, must be regulated by the NAMA legislation.
Deputy Bruton said that while the Oireachtas was trying to legislate to regulate NAMA, it then emerged that the 'real action' of NAMA will be moved 'offshore' so to speak.
He said, because of this, it is imperative that the role of the SPV be defined clearly in the legislation.
He said this would include transparency as to the identity of investors, the make-up of the Board and other details such as how dividends will be handled.
He said the Minister had said that the SPV must have control, so therefore the parameters of this control must be set out exactly in statute, Richard Bruton said.
He said if the SPV is as innocuous as the Minister says, then let him make the necessary legislative provisions for all its workings.
A total of 135 amendments to the NAMA legislation were submitted for consideration during the Report Stage of the debate, which is being held today and tomorrow.
The Report and Final Stages of the legislation are due to finish in the Dáil tomorrow evening at 8pm.
