The head of Nama has admitted the sale of a Donegal property subject to loans of €10.3m for just €265,000 is “shocking”, but insisted the agency had no alternative.
The sale is reported to have happened following a campaign of intimidation and threats.
The property, which consists of 14 occupied residential units and 28 unoccupied ones on a 21 hectare site, was sold to a company owned by the brother of the original debtor.
It was raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General in a 2021 report.
The sale progressed after a campaign of intimidation and threats, which saw the receiver appointed to sell the land resign in May 2020, with Nama subsequently concluding the market value of the assets was “unlikely to ever be achieved or the lands disposed of while the threats and intimidation continue.”
Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh agreed at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday that the sale was ‘shocking.’
As reported in the Irish Examiner Mr McDonagh said the low valuation was not that of Nama but of an independent assessor, and argued he could not conceive how such low-quality land — the site being based on marshland — had been given such a large loan in the first place.
He said it is currently subject to a vermin infestation.
