This must be one of the more bizarre NAMA stories but it illustrates a serious point : a NAMA developer is reported to own a pig farm in Cork which presently houses 57,000 pigs, the developer has significant property loans which have been transferred to NAMA and it is claimed that the developer is unable to afford to buy feed for the pigs, and that the only option now available is to unprofitably slaughter the pigs. Yesterday, Tom Barry, the Fine Gael TD for Cork East made an extraordinary intervention on RTE Radio News at One (listen to the clip here), when he claimed that NAMA does not have the expertise to deal with agricultural assets, that commitments allegedly given by the bank from whom the loan was originally obtained have not been fulfilled but that “it wasn’t in NAMA’s interest to slaughter pigs, it just doesn’t make any sense” – the claim from the rural TD was that it made more sense to manage the livestock to a point when they might be profitably disposed of.
The pig farm is apparently subject to an Allied Irish Banks (AIB) loan. The businessman who owns the pig farm was not identified but seemingly owes the bank in excess of €20m for property-related loans because that is presently the lower limit on AIB NAMA loans.
The serious point is in respect of the concern that NAMA doesn’t possess the expertise to evaluate agricultural businesses; the wider point is that NAMA may be taking over all sorts of loans relating to acquisitions as diverse as helicopters, fine wines, stock portfolios and race horses, and it is unclear how the agency will ensure the value of such assets is maximised. In the present case, the politician for Cork East was exhorting NAMA to create an “agricultural review board” that might ensure decisions in respect of farms were expertly considered. There was an additional plea from Tom Barry for a junior ministry to be created to deal specifically with NAMA, which was “faceless and nameless” according to the TD. The Irish Times subsequently reported “a spokesman for NAMA said it was not directly involved in managing the farm, which was being handled on its behalf by AIB” and “it emerged, last night, that bank funding had been made available for feed”
UPDATE: 30th May, 2011. A second piggery has become the subject of a spat between politicians and NAMA. This time, it’s an unnamed piggery (or possibly piggeries) in south Tipperary where the sitting TD is Mattie McGrath who said in the Dail last Thursday 26th May, 2011 “There are cases in my county of pig farmers who have ended up in NAMA not being allowed to provide proper sustenance for their animals. They are given barely enough meal to keep going. NAMA wants them to sell the animals to repay some of their debts in order to make itself look good, yet it will not allow the farmers to feed proper rations to the animals to make them fit for sale. It is totally shoddy because those concerned do not understand how businesses are run. That is only one instance but it is the same way in the hotel industry. The people concerned have no understanding because they are accountants and solicitors. I do not say anything about them in regard to their careers but many of them are young and inexperienced and do not understand the situation. That is a basic flaw in NAMA which must be sorted out. These people have no problem about closing down accounts and bouncing cheques on suppliers and all of that, which causes trauma to businesses that have been trading for generations and decades.” The Independent reports a response by a NAMA spokesman that ” NAMA would never act in that way [depriving pigs of sustenance] and does not get involved in the minutiae of management. “
NAMA Wine Lake 
Surreal – just proves my central point that you just can’t run a economy or pig farm without money.
They wish to destroy almost certain productivity to pay for unpayable debt !!!!
The deliberate confusion of money with credit needs to stop.
This elementary economic maxim is somehow ignored in Pig land.
Aw shucks, NWL, when I read the headline, I thought that they were referring to the developers!
“Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow” – Joyce
Never has this quote seemed more apt. Here we have a value adding business, producing tangible goods for sale, and the Irish proceed to raze it to the ground because they see no value in anything except unproductive real estate.
This farm is better referred to as a factory. It produces large quantities of goods from raw materials, provides substantial employment, and earns money for the country though exports. It’s a valued added business! Of course, the people at NAMA probably have little concept of what “valued added” means, or why it is more important that property prices.
It’s clear that the people running NAMA are still living in the height of the boom in 2006, when an economy was defined as the process of people selling houses to one another. They should not be making decisions about businesses which they are totally ignorant of.
bacon sandwiches for all – hooray !
@OMF: The people running NAMA are singularly ill-equipped for the job. The Chairman is an ex tax collector cum customs officer and the rest are a bunch of failed estate agents, civil servants or facility managers. They are “busted flushes” and not one of them has ever risked a cent or has any meaningful commercial knowledge. All they are capable of doing is deciding whether they will put a debtor into the “non-coperation” box or into the “in compliance” one depending on whether they fill out the template correctly or not – it also depends on the colour of their socks!
NAMA is an asset disposal agency and from a debtor’s viewpoint, it is a self-liquidation process. At last , thank God, that penny has started to drop with the developers.
BTW, the “non compliance” box is overflowing at this point.
Pork bellies !!! Sell ! Sell ! Sell !
(I’ve always wanted to say that :-))
Well at least the pigs will now be fattened up for the kill.
Unlike the Irish who are to be slimmed down severely before the final humiliation that we all know is coming.
The pigs we presume don’t know what is in front of them. A bit like the Irish during the bubble.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb famously commented “…I wouldn’t trust him to park my car” when talking about Ben Bernanke.
I wonder what he’d say about our lot!
Thankfully, in 2007, I read extracts of his book ‘The Black Swan – the impact of the highly improbable’. Since then we’ve seen the unfolding of previously unthinkable scenarios.
I feel very sorry for the pigs…
@PGD
I feel sorrier for the piigs.
… perhaps the NAMA men are more prime fillet steak and as they eat out a lot on their high salaries can’t actually understand where food comes from.
and
… like ostriches with their head in the sands (Ostrich meat is quite tasty.. mmmm) just want it all to go away.
@who_shot_the_tiger
“@OMF: The people running NAMA are singularly ill-equipped for the job. The Chairman is an ex tax collector cum customs officer and the rest are a bunch of failed estate agents, civil servants or facility managers. They are “busted flushes” and not one of them has ever risked a cent or has any meaningful commercial knowledge.”
busted flushes that are still being paid their wages!
Busted Flush definition: A promising person who turns out to be unsuccessful.
…… it pretty much sums up the country, really!
and the backup team in the ‘busted flush’ corner…
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/suggestions-from-lobby-groups-on-resolving-jobs-crisis-are-just-waffle-2640716.html
I wouldn’t exactly agree with Colm as regards the big ‘sell off’, (personally, taking back ownership of our FISHING RIGHTS would be a better policy than buying bust banks and selling off infrastructure, but thats a whole different discussion) but I think his analysis and straight talking has been consistently on the button.
My guess? They are trying to boost the value of nearby property! See:
Click to access 2009-spatial_jereonline.pdf
“When spatial lag dependence is explicitly taken
into account, the impact on the value of the median house ($63,520) 1 mile from a swine facility with 10,000 head fell from −$6,800 to −$5,200.”
60,000 pigs means an impact of $30,000, so about €20,000, which is 10% of the value of the typical house these days! NWL, does NAMA own something big nearby too?!
@Ronan, it could well be the intention to run down the piggery to boost adjoining property prices. In truth, I haven’t investigated this in any great detail at all and the TD was careful not to disclose the identity of the developer, though there can’t be that many piggeries in east Cork with 57,000 pigs, I’d guess.