Nama directors should have to declare interests, says Mulcahy

DÁIL COMMITTEE: NAMA HEARINGS:FIANNA FÁIL backbencher Michael Mulcahysaid the Nama directors should have to make a declaration of interests.

“Everybody in this House has a statutory obligation to declare all their interests above a certain level and so on,” he added.

“It strikes me that people who are controlling €54 billion worth of Irish liability should have an obligation to disclose all their assets, preferably in public.” Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said that he would have Mr Mulcahy’s proposal examined.

Labour's Pat Rabbittequestioned the legislative provisions relating to the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

The SPV will be a separate legal entity, with private investors owning 51 per cent of the equity and Nama holding the remaining 49 per cent.

Mr Rabbitte said that while he accepted the Attorney General held the view that the Bill was adequate, he was puzzled as to why the Minister would resist a simple amendment that would give a manifest statutory basis for this development. “The disclosure of interest requirements in the Bill as it stands for Nama members is very rigid,” he added.

“I do not take any issue with that. They seem to be appropriate. But we do not have any such code in respect of who will be the directors of the SPV.”

He said he presumed that the owners of the private equity could nominate whoever they pleased.

The Minister, said Mr Rabbitte, was saying that they would not nominate an estate agent with a manifest interest, or a former banker who had to exit the scene in less than glorious circumstances. “But they are free, I presume, if they put up the €51 million, to nominate whomsoever they please,” he added.

Mr Lenihan said Mr Rabbitte had made a fair point and he would go back to the AG on the matter of corporate governance standards.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Brutonsaid there was need for an amendment to the Bill, governing the SPVs in some shape or form. The Oireachtas would want to do more than "shoehorn" them in.