• Home
  • NAMA property for sale
  • About
  • The Developers
  • The Tranches

NAMA Wine Lake

Click the green link above for latest news and over 2,600 related articles. NAMA – National Asset Management Agency – part of Ireland's response to its banking crisis and property bubble

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« CSO reports Irish residential rents continuing to rise 3% annually
Myths and facts about NAMA »

Legislation to bring NAMA within scope of Freedom of Information Act published in Dail

March 15, 2012 by namawinelake

Despite all the clamouring to bring NAMA within the scope of our Freedom of Information legislation, I am really at a loss to understand what benefits will be conferred by such a move. After all, NAMA will still be able to suppress the revelation of details relating to individual developers or properties or sales in the same way existing public bodies can claim commercial confidentiality when responding to FoI requests. Furthermore NAMA has enshrined in its governing legislation – mainly the NAMA Act – the duty to maintain the confidentiality of its dealings with developers.

On the other hand, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny has promised to bring NAMA under the umbrella of FoI legislation by the end of 2012 and that is further to a Fine Gael election manifesto commitment in 2011; he said on 8th February, 2012 “the Bill relating to freedom of information will be introduced later this year. A number of areas require discussion and analysis before the Minister can move on it” and against that background in the Dail yesterday the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty introduced his “Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012” – it’s probably not even worth clicking on the link because the only clause of any consequence in the 3-page document is “the First Schedule to the Principal Act is hereby amended by 15 inserting the following subparagraph after subparagraph (4): “(4A) The National Asset Management Agency as established by the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009” No bells or whistles – the Bill simply proposes that NAMA be a named organization under the Freedom of Information Act 1997.

The introduction of the Bill has a political aspect because it is an Opposition party which is seemingly moving on the issue a year after the Government gave a commitment. And given An Taoiseach’s commitment to widening the FoI legislation to NAMA by the end of the year, it is difficult to see how it can be justifiably opposed by Fine Gael or indeed Labour.

NAMA appears to regard the FoI legislation with mild hostility, and possibly sees any invasive interference in the operation of NAMA as unhelpful and possibly compromising the Agency in terms of its workload in dealing with requests or undermining negotiations or providing competitors with an advantage. That said, NAMA doesn’t take a political stance, so will presumably accept whatever is enacted without lobbying politicians beforehand.

It should be said that there is another freedom of information-type matter before the courts at present in respect of NAMA. The Agency is disputing in Dublin’s High Court, a decision by the Information Commissioner last year which declared NAMA to be a public authority for the purposes of being subject to environmental information requests. “Internet blogger” – according to the Oireachtas committee hearing with NAMA yesterday – but also journalist, founder of thestory.ie and Innovation Director at storyful.com, Gavin Sheridan is responsible for getting NAMA declared a public authority but it is not clear what useful information might be extracted from NAMA under the environmental information heading. You can read more about the court case here which is scheduled to be heard on 17th May 2012 (case ref: 2011 357 MCA)

The Sinn Fein announcement of the Bill is here together with that party’s 12-point justification for the need for this Bill. A more useful Bill, though legislatively more problematic is Senator Mark Daly’s Bill introduced in December 2011 which would require NAMA to list details of all properties and sales within the purlieu of the Agency, that Bill however has not progressed so far.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in NAMA, Politics | 3 Comments

3 Responses

  1. on March 16, 2012 at 2:21 am sf ca writer

    NAMA as a secretive entity made number 2 of 4 points in a summary of my learning of the last two years.
    http://wp.me/p28tG9-bK


  2. on March 16, 2012 at 3:01 am who_shot_the_tiger

    @sf ca writer. Enjoyed you thoughts! Very well put.
    P.S. I find it almost difficult to wish a ‘Happy St. Patrick’s Day” (which I do). I’m not sure whether it is out of sadness or despair. I would literally give my right arm for a commercially savvy, true leader in Ireland at this time.

    Constantin Gurdiev said once that Switzerland like Ireland is just a small country, but it is wealthy and we are not. It comes down to the quality of leadership and a commercial understanding and experience that we just do not possess as a race.


  3. on March 16, 2012 at 3:36 am sf ca writer

    @wstt
    Thanks and happy St.Paddy’s Day.
    All I can say is, for not the first time,
    “If Ireland were a small independent nation with identity…….”
    Which it ain’t.



Comments are closed.

  • Recent Posts

    • Test – 12 November 2018
    • Farewell from NWL
    • Happy 70th Birthday, Michael
    • Of the Week…
    • Noonan denies IBRC legal fees loan approval to Paddy McKillen was in breach of European Commission commitments
    • Gayle Killilea Dunne asks to be added as notice party in Sean Dunne’s bankruptcy
    • NAMA sues Maria Byrne and Graham Byrne in Dublin’s High Court
    • Johnny Ronan finally wins a court case
  • Recent Comments

    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    Dorothy Jones on Of the Week…
    Sean Bean on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    John Foody on Of the Week…
    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    otto on Of the Week…
    Frank Street on Of the Week…
    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    John Gallaher on Of the Week…
    John Gallaher on Of the Week…
    who_shot_the_tiger on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    Sean Bean on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    otto on Of the Week…
    Brian Flanagan on Of the Week…
    Robert Browne on Gayle Killilea Dunne asks to b…
  • Twitter Updates

    • Funniest case in Irish legal history? 1. ex-Cllr Fred Forsey convicted of RECEIVING a corrupt payment 2. developer… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Really looking forward to this at 9pm tonight, esp the first Garda on the scene. Well worth reading this background… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Tea time on the day the president of the ECB tells us we [in Ireland] are paying more interest on our loans than th… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • “I am grateful for you to refer to Mr Sugarman...on the specific question of Unicredit, responsibility at ECB lies… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • @JMcGuinnessTD now confronts ECB about "the honest whistleblower" @WhistleIRL and his disclosures of liquidity issu… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Details, including court documents of class action in New York against Ryanair and CEO Michael O'Leary.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Draghi tells @paulmurphy_TD the ECB doesn't remove govts, the people do, that's democracy. Bet the people will be m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Wow! Draghi says there is no net interest cost for the Anglo bonds whilst they're held by the Irish central bank. T… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    Follow @namawinelake
  • Click on date for that day’s posts

    March 2012
    M T W T F S S
     1234
    567891011
    12131415161718
    19202122232425
    262728293031  
    « Feb   Apr »
  • Blog Stats

    • 5,113,834 hits

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • NAMA Wine Lake
    • Join 1,326 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • NAMA Wine Lake
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: