Minister Quinn’s intervention is worrying. Here’s why.
A story was being researched on NWL for some weeks, involved BSkyB and its 800 new jobs in a call-centre to be sited in Ballsbridge. The crux of the story was that NAMA wasn’t keen to allow a building which it effectively controlled to be part-rented, it wanted a single tenant for the entire building. Minister Richard Bruton got involved and NAMA reversed its position.
In researching the story, the following email was sent from the NWL blog to Richard Bruton’s press office last Tuesday "Dear Sirs,
I am involved in the operation of the NAMA wine lake blog which reports on the activities of the National Asset Management Agency, and associated subjects (namawinelake.wordpress.com)
I write to ask for comment on the announcement of the BSkyB call centre in the Burlington Plaza in Ballsbridge and the involvement of NAMA and the Minister. I understand that the landlord acting under NAMA’s auspices originally refused to lease part of the building to BSkyB because it was NAMA’s objective to lease the building in its entirety. I understand that subsequent to this refusal, the Minister telephoned the CEO of NAMA, Mr Brendan McDonagh and following that telephone conversation, the landlord did in fact agree to rent part of the building, thereby securing a reported 800 new jobs.
I wish to ask if the Minister feels that situations such as this are obstructing employment in this country. It is certainly the case that potential employers have previously complained about NAMA’s responses to proposals which might have resulted in new employment (for example, in the BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme broadcast last November 2011).
I wish to ask if the Minister had reservations in making any request to NAMA to reconsider its position, and if regard was paid to NAMA’s anti-lobbying rules which would require such communication to be made public.
With many thanks for your time,
Yours sincerely
Jag Singh"
There was no response. An email to NAMA some time earlier was also not responded to. And during the week, no-one wanted to speak on the record, but it seemed plain that there had been a ministerial intervention in the property transaction.
Yesterday the story was published on the NWL blog here - namawinelake.wordpress.com/2012/ … ntervened/ with the title “Did NAMA place 800 BSkyB jobs in jeopardy, before Government minister intervened?”
Today a similar story appears in the Sunday Independent - independent.ie/national-news … 10378.html under the title “How Nama risked 800 Sky jobs”
but the Independent story seems to want to stress that Minister Bruton didn’t contact NAMA directly, but that he contacted the IDA. That’s at odds with what I understand, but because the Department didn’t respond to the enquiry, it’s hard to tell the precise choreography which led to NAMA changing its position.
The NWL blogpost raises questions about lobbying NAMA. And even if the Sunday Independent is correct, then the IDA should have made its lobbying public, if not the Minister. Luckily in this country, we still have a political system which allows PQs to be put down so the matter can be progressed in this way.
But if Minister Quinn has his way, the direction of which is clear from his UL performance, then these matters may simply not come to light in future at all.
