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Everyone’s talking about…

The latest questions come about as a result of allegations made by Mick Wallace TD. Leah Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leah Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

IT PROBABLY DOESN’T help perceptions around Nama’s secretive dealings that they are named like some sort of villainous plot from a James Bond movie.

But today the Public Accounts Committee is questioning the agency’s top executives about ‘Project Eagle’,  the sale of its 800 property Northern Ireland loanbook worth €1.6 billion.

The controversy has been brought to the fore by Mick Wallace TD who says that the portfolio was worth €4.5 billion.

During the summer, the Wexford deputy claimed that an audit of a legal firm involved in the sale process revealed that £7 million ended up in an Isle of Man bank account and this was “reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician”.

People of both political and and business hues had been pushing a somewhat partitionist approach to the issues, essentially that it’s a Northern problem.

But today it came south when, as well as those Nama officials, the chair of the Northern Ireland finance committee Daithi McKay briefed TDs and Senators. That committee has been carrying out its own inquiries.

McKay said that the reluctance of Nama to appear before the committee had been ‘frustrating’.

His interventions came as PAC chairman John McGuinness described the decision of Finance Minister Michael Noonan to furnish them with 41 documents running to hundreds of pages late last night as “deeply frustrating”.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald went further saying that the timing “feels like a manoeuvre”.

The agenda 

• Facing questions in the Dáil first thing this morning will be Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin.
• The deaths of babies at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise have led to a meeting on Ireland’s maternity services with some top health officials in from 9.30am.
• As mentioned above, Nama’s top brass are at the Public Accounts Committee from 10am. 
• Ireland’s decision to opt-in to a EU’s relocation programme for migrants is to be meted out in the Dáil at 10.45am.
• High noon for Leaders’ Questions.
• Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and her Northern counterpart David Ford are at a seminar on cross-border organised crime in Sligo.
• In the Seanad, they’ll also be discussing the migration crisis from 1pm.
• A new law that seeks to change how people can make taxation appeals is to be debated this morning. 

Inside Leinster House

While everyone may speculate all they want about the date of the general election, a senior government source was last night unequivocal in their response.

Anybody who says they know Enda Kenny’s thinking on the date of the general election is lying.

What the others are saying  

• The managing director of Volkswagen Ireland has been invited before the Oireachtas transport committee to discuss the emissions scandal, reports the Irish Examiner. 
• Fine Gael’s Patrick O’Donnell wants the licence fee cut by €60 because RTÉ has failed to fully reveal their salaries and expeses, says the Irish Independent.
• Alan Shatter TD has tabled a bill that seeks to stop delays in putting referendum changes into effect, reports the Irish Times.   

In case you missed it… 

• As expected, former Fianna Fáil minister Mary Hanfin was added to the electoral ticket in Dun Laoghaire. 
• The Taoiseach was urged to get involved in the case of Dublin residents being forced to pay for fire-safety repairs in their apartments.
• Jobs Minster Richard Bruton announced 200 jobs at Accenture in Dublin.
• In the the UK, things took a turn for the bizarre for Jeremy Corbyn.
• Speaking of bizarre, Enda Kenny insisted he was serious about high-speed burglars wearing night-vision goggles.
• Political pressure (and a Supreme Court ruling) means that an LGBT rights group will march in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade next year.
• Oh, and of course everyone is still trying to read Enda’s mind on the date of the general election.  November or February is the question Enda Kenny he’s pondering.  

Good day for…  

• Fine Gael insiders. Whether the election is in November or February, they have the media talking about what they want them to talk about.  

Bad day for… 

• The ‘old boys’ (and girls). The addition of former minister Mary Hanafin to the ticket in Dún Laoghaire was labelled as a ‘complete joke’ from within her own party. It certainly doesn’t help perceptions after Seán Haughey was also added to the ticket in Dublin Bay North alongside Deirdre Heney.   

On the Twitter machine…  

Getting students to your stall on clubs and socs day in college is always a dog eat dog challenge, but a cardboard cut out of Willie O’Dea certainly helps.

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