Written Answers. - Parliamentary Debates - Houses of the Oireachtas

[Deputy Michael Noonan.]
Questions— 14 February 2012. Written Answers
NAMA informs me that particular loan sale assignments will be allocated following competitive
mini-tenders within each of the panels.
NAMA advises me that there are some officers in the Agency who have worked for firms
on one or both panels. NAMA also advises me that, given its remit under the NAMA Act, it
must recruit staff with the requisite experience and expertise and that it would not therefore
be possible to recruit officers who have not worked with firms on NAMA panels, particularly
given the breadth of activities with which the larger law and accountancy firms are involved.
The key issue, however, is that NAMA takes steps to ensure conflicts of interest do not
occur. Under Section 42 of the NAMA Act, before he or she is assigned to NAMA, each
officer is required to provide a statement of his or her interests, assets and liabilities to the
Chief Executive Officer of NAMA and the Chief Executive of NTMA. Furthermore, a key
item for any NAMA evaluation group for procurement of services is a declaration by each
member that they have no conflict of interest. NAMA advises me that this enables the Agency
to ensure
• that potential conflicts of interest in the management of the loan portfolios are managed
effectively; and
• that staff do not participate in decisions which may involve the allocation of work to
companies for which they worked previously.
As regards the sale of US or European loans, NAMA will shortly begin the process of identifying
certain segments of its loan portfolio for sale. NAMA advises that the volume and timing
of actual sales will depend on whether NAMA considers that market bids represent good value
for the taxpayer in any particular instance.
155. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Finance the amount the National Asset
Management Agency has spent on legal fees in total since its establishment; if he will provide
a breakdown of the legal fees spent each year since its establishment; if he will provide a
breakdown of the names of the top ten recipients of legal fees from NAMA each year since
its establishment; and the amount these recipients received each year from NAMA. [7724/12]
Minister for Finance (Deputy Michael Noonan): The details requested by the Deputy are set
out hereunder. It should be noted that the details are on a cash paid basis as opposed to the
accrual accounting basis that must be used in the Agency’s annual financial statements. It
should also be noted that the figures for 2012 are those incurred up to 6 February only.
Total Legal expenses by year (€)
Year
Base Amount
2010 9,746,625.68
2011 16,455,532.56
2012 1,349,117.41
Total 27,551,275.65
Top Ten suppliers to date (€)
1 Arthur Cox 3,074,552.86
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