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NAMA HAS COME out strongly against a number of claims made against it saying misinformation has been released as part of an “organised campaign to discredit” the agency.
NAMA CEO Brendan McDonagh and chairman Frank Daly were both appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee this morning following allegations of illegality at the state’s bad bank.
In a pointed defence to the claims, McDonagh said that NAMA has not itself been provided with the allegations and has only learned about them through the media.
Despite this, McDonagh said this morning that, from what the agency understands of the claims, they are “satisfied that they are unfounded”.
McDonagh address two specific allegations that have been aired by the media and in the Dáil during the week.
The first allegation was a claim by former NAMA employee Enda Farrell that he leaked a ‘full file’ of personal information on property developer Paddy McKillen to a third-party.
McDonagh said that, not only did this claim contradict previous sworn statements by Farrell, but that a review taken over the last 36 hours shows that there was no electronic communications between Farrell and the third-party.
Furthermore, McDonagh said that NAMA holds “very little” information on McKillen because they did not acquire his loads:
NAMA has never possessed this information in relation to Mr. McKillen because, as the Committee will be aware, the NAMA Board took a decision in July 2011 not to acquire Mr McKillen’s loans. Such information is usually provided as part of a debtor’s business plan submission and in this case, as we did not acquire the loans, no business plan was submitted.
NAMA’S Frank Daly says people are trying to discredit NAMA for their own ends. (Pic: Oireachtas/ Screengrab)
Valuations
The second allegation addressed during the committee session was that a claim that NAMA had deliberately manipulated the valuation of property which was collateral for its acquired loans.
“NAMA utterly refutes this allegation,” said McDonagh.
He outlined the property valuation process which he says first involves the relevant financial institution appointing an independent valuer. NAMA then appoint their own valuer which reviews the first valuation, in 88 per cent of cases the NAMA panel accepted the original valuation said McDonagh
In the 12 per cent of cases where there is a difference between the two valuations, a third valuer is appointed and their valuation is accepted.
NAMA’s chairman Frank Daly outlined what he felt was “an organised campaign to hinder effectiveness of NAMA and influence its decisions” but said that NAMA “would not be distracted” from its goals.
“We seem to to be one of the few people in Dublin who aren’t in possession of this allegations,” he added.
Daly said that the agency “does not believe everything our debtors tell us” and questioned the credence that the media and certain politicians have given to the allegations.
McDonagh echoed this claim that people are seeking to harm NAMA for their own ends:
Some will intend to discredit NAMA for their own purpose under theory that if enough mud is thrown some of it will stick. Unfortunately, in every walk of life there are bad eggs but in our case thankfully they have been very few.
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The amount of corruption at work in this country is truly sickening.
Is there no part of the “system” untainted by it?
When you hear a member of Fianna Fáil cry corruption , take it with a grain of salt. Some clever person is using the publicity addicted Darragh o Brien to shout blue murder about unproven events at NAMA
When you think of the billions of euros worth of fraud that led to 3 top bankers being charged last week, plus another 1 for 200 000 this morning. Along with everything we already know about drumm, Fitzpatrick etc. And God knows what else to come. This is truly shocking. If you put the worst gangsters in the country into a bank, they wouldn’t be a patch on the well educated people who “supposedly” were running things. I’m bloody shocked to pieces over what went on
I actually am fully convinced somewhere beneath the surface in good old Ireland (treasure island) we are about to uncover the biggest corruption and robbery stories in the history of humanity. Does anyone know of anywhere else that was worse than this??
A disgusting, rotten corrupt to the core little two bit pyramid country where the greedy weasels all know each other at the top (politicians, senior bankers and civil servants, developers) to the f**king absolute detriment of the taxed through the nose paying fools at the bottom. And all the while professing a ‘transparent and accountable’ philosophy which they feel is only applicable to the ‘dregs’ while they go on and on with their nefarious activities paying lip service to this notion.
NAMA
A piggy bank/goldengoose/ATM for dodgy bankers, senior civil servants, developers, accountants, lawyers/barristers, estate agents and vulture investors everywhere.
Guaranteed to shaft Joe Public at every turn.
I’d much rather they shut NAMA down at this stage.
Even if it added another 30 billion to the national debt.
I’d much rather that,
than having
to watch
these twits
slowly squander our money away over the next 10-20 years and having to listen to them rabbiting on with their “we must get the best value for the taxpayer” BS.
Admit it we are Fcuked anyway.
What difference would another 30 Billion make???
We’d probably have a better chance of a Greek style write off without these Gits Pr1cking around on our dime.
very sorry
the journal is preventing me from posting comment in its entirety again.
That’s it sheep listen to the crap from both sides here and do nothing about it. Look up a site called Nama winelake if you want to know the truth about Nama assets and bond holders, for example the land that was sold in cork without valuation or advertisement , but if you prefer you can just ignore it and keep paying your taxes old and new, merry christmas sheep and a taxing new year, I for one dropped out of this sham last February and have never been happier
The current Fine Gael government are incompetent. They stood idly by in opposition while they watched the devious Fianna Fáil
government push through disastrous economic policies which have us in the economic mess we’re in now.
They turned a blind eye to rampant Fianna Fáil corruption even though they promised transparency and an end to dirty politics.
Now we have corruption coming out of the Fianna Fáil established NAMA and it may be the tip of the iceberg!
Do we really want this Fine Gael party in government this time five years from now? I don’t think so!
VOTE FIANNA FÁIL 2015
LMAO :-)
:-)
You talk like the current FF party are a completely different entity to the previous FF government.
I hope FF are decimated at the next election and disband for good.
@Shakka1224
Looks like intelligent humour is lost on you!
Im not a Fina Gael supporter by any stretch of the imagination but why would anyone in their right mind vote for a party that completely abandoned their original manifesto and not to mention drove the country into the ground ? Naivety at its finest !
Adam well said because us honest people of FG would delete parts of our manifesto from our website (except the part about the property tax)
The current government would almost make you nostalgic for English rule.
At least back then we stood up for ourselves even at the risk of being shot.
Now…well…thats a different story.
So, nama didn’t take over mckillens loans . Was this decision taken blindly or did nama review them first which would mean that nama had full disclosure. The latter I suspect.
Also, mr farrell didn’t e mail the information.
Case closed.
jsut more proof the dail must be dissolved. we should be ruled directly from brussels
Hear, speak and see no wrong……
No Non-disclosure Agreements then?
No smoke without fire !
Don’t think we have heard the last of this one yet.
Those guys from NAMA seem to be be real smoothies and apart from Shane Ross the other politicians seemed to be out of their debth.
Would this be the wonderful Shane Ross who said that the boards of AIB and BOI should be forced to resign as Anglo were the only bank who knew what they were doing?
It is amazing how Shane Ross forgets what a cheerleader he was for Anglo.
Me thinks these guys protest too much !!
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