Stormont committee to ask Department of Finance for Nama correspondence

The Stormont committee investigating the sale of Nama's former portfolio in the North is to ask the Department of Finance to provide it with all correspondence it holds between various Ministers for Finance - North and South - relating to the state agency.

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s committee for finance and personnel agreed on Thursday that it would formally request from the Department of Finance all documentary evidence that had any relevance to its inquiry.

Daithí McKay, the Sinn Fein MLA and chairman of the committee, believes the department should willing share any correspondence that would help advance the Northern Ireland inquiry.

"We would hope that any relevant correspondence particularly with regard to Nama's former Northern Ireland advisory committee will be made available by the Department of Finance," Mr McKay told The Irish Times after the committee's latest session.

The committee met briefly on Thursday at Parliament Buildings in Belfast to outline the next stages of its inquiry, and no evidence was scheduled to be heard from any witnesses.

McKibbin letter

But Mr McKay did say that the committee was keen to see a copy of a letter written by Dr Malcolm McKibbin, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) to the British National Crime Agency (NCA) which is conducting its own investigation into the sale of Nama's loan portfolio in the North.

Mr McKay said he believed that some government departments in the North were using the NCA investigation as an excuse not to provide information that had been requested by the Northern Ireland Assembly’s committee for finance and personnel.

“I am keen to see that very soon because I am aware there are some efforts to stymie this inquiry,” Mr McKay said.

He said requests from the committee to the US law firm Brown Rudnick, who played a key role in the sale of the Nama portfolio, to share correspondence between the firm and the Northern Ireland finance minister had so far also not delivered any results.

Mr McKay said he believed Brown Rudnick was also using the NCA investigation as an excuse not to co-operate with the inquiry.

But he said the cross-party committee had met the NCA, which had assured it that its inquiry’s agreed terms of reference would not interfere or prejudice the committee’s investigation so he believed that Brown Rudnick’s current stance was groundless.

Bryson information

During the meeting on Thursday the committee also debated whether to take evidence from Jamie Bryson, a loyalist who was previously convicted of participating in illegal flag protests.

Mr Bryson claims he has information about the sale of Nama’s portfolio which he is willing to share with the committee - it has agreed to write to him to ask him to provide any evidence “within its terms of reference”.

In response, Mr Bryson later tweeted that he intends to “carefully study the DFP terms of reference, respond outlining areas of relevance and provide oral evidence within those parameters”.

Mr McKay said the committee will continue to pursue its requests for information from the North's former finance ministers, Simon Hamilton and Sammy Wilson and take further legal advice on using its powers to compel potential witnesses such as Nama representatives to attend the inquiry.

“We are going to exhaust all avenues to get the truth,” he said.