Lenihan unveils Nama board

Former chairman of the Revenue Commission Frank Daly is to head a nine-member board which will oversee the running of the Government’s bad loan agency Nama (National Asset Management Agency).

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan this evening announced the names of the board, which included a prominent adviser at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mr Daly will be stepping down from his current role as a public interest director at Anglo Irish Bank in order to take up the post.

Steven Seelig, who described Government’s definition of “long-term economic value” on bank loans as “sufficiently vague” to allow “appropriate flexibility”, will be appointed to the board in May 2010, when he retires from the IMF.

Mr Seelig will, however, be available to provide advice, in a personal capacity to the Nama board, the Department of Finance said.

Brendan Mc Donagh of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), now interim managing director of Nama, is to be the chief executive of the agency.

The other members of the board are financial consultant Eilish Finan; former senior manager with Bank of Ireland Michael Connolly; chartered accountants Peter Stewart and Brian McEnery; and the chairman of Dublin Transportation Office Willie Soffe

NTMA chief executive John Corrigan and the chief executive of Nama will be ex-officio members of the Board.

Mr Lenihan said more than 800 applications had been received and reviewed for the posts with the assistance of the Public Appointments Service.

He said the board appointees reflected "cross-party consultation" which had been undertaken in recent weeks.

Mr Lenihan said: "It is of critical importance that the members of the Nama board are suitably qualified and experienced to ensure that Nama can discharge its functions under the legislation in an efficient and effective manner."

"I am satisfied that following an exhaustive selection process the high calibre of the appointments which I have announced today will mean that the Nama board has the right people to steer Nama towards its goals including restoring stability to the Irish financial system and improving credit availability," he added.

The Minister also announced that a Planning Advisory Committee will be set up under Nama.