The National Asset Management Agency Act 2009: Annotations and Commentary Hugh Byrne And Louis Mcentagart

• Date: 01 January 2011
• Author: John Kennedy

THE NATIONAL ASSET MANAGEMENT AGENCY

ACT 2009: ANNOTATIONS AND COMMENTARY

HU GH B YRNE AND LOU IS M CENT AGA RT

Bloomsbury Professional, June 2010

ISBN 978–1–84766–504–1

John Kennedy BL

Mr. Justice Finnegan in his foreword to this valuable w ork opines that the

National Asset Management Act 2009 (the “NAMA Act”) “will be a feature

of the economi c, socia l and legal landscape of Ireland for man y years to

come”. I agree.

The NAMA Act is 122 pages long. It is divided into 15 parts. Each part

is sub-divided into chapters. Each chapter is made up of varying amounts of

sections. Most chapters have a “definitions” or “interpretation” section.

There are 241 sections in the Act. It is not light reading.

Arguably no previous act of the Oireachtas has received more publicity

or sustained greater media commentary than the NAMA Act. Section 2(a)

sets out that the first purpose of the Act is: “to address the serious threat to

the economy and the stability of credit institutions in the State generally and

the need for the maintenance and stabilisation of the financial system in the

State.” Additional purposes under s.2(b) include facilitating the availability

of credit in the economy of the State, resolving the problems created by the

financial crisis in an expeditious and efficient manner and achieving a

recovery in the economy, facilitating the restructuring of credit institutions

of significant importance to the e conomy, to restore confidence in the

banking sector and to underpin the effect of Government support measures

in relation to that sector. The aims and scope of the NAMA Act are not shy

and retiring.

I hav e written pre viously that the underlying purpose of NAMA is to

purchase debt at a discount from participating institutions. NAMA is a

purchaser of last resort. It is most important to remember that NAMA is a

voluntary scheme that the participating banks opted into.

Under the NAMA Act even a short sentence can import a multitud e of

precise, clearly defined statu tory meani ngs. Against that background this

book is a valua ble scythe through NAMA’s legislative jung le. This bo ok

carefully po ints out term s that are defined and ca rry a meaning under the

NAMA Act that is additional to their ordinary dictionary meaning. Within

each annotated section, this is repeated, prompting the authors to point out

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