The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has said three individuals attempted to put pressure on him to limit the committee's report on the sale of the Project Eagle loan book by the National Assets Management Agency.

Sean Fleming said Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said during a meeting in the Dáil restaurant, in February 2015, that the committee was being unfair to him.

He said Mr Noonan concluded the statement by saying "you know that I can injunct you".

Mr Fleming said he also wanted to put it on the record that he had a conversation with the Chairman of NAMA who said "he did mention to me the issue of legal advice was being considered, but the high financial cost of it to NAMA was an issue that they had to take into account".

Mr Fleming said the remark was made "in relation to our report, that we were potentially making adverse findings against NAMA".

However, in a letter to Mr Fleming, NAMA Chairman Frank Daly said that his remark was made in relation to the circulation of a copy of the committee's draft report into the Project Eagle sale.

He said that he expressed concern to Mr Fleming at the time of their conversation about a media report which made an allegation against NAMA, "in the context of its summary of the leaked draft report."

In the letter, Mr Daly said that at the time of his conversation with Mr Fleming, he said that "no such finding had been made by the C&AG".

He had also stated that if any such finding relating to the allegation was included in the final PAC report, then the NAMA Board "would have to consider whether to seek legal advice."

The Fianna Fáil TD also told the Public Accounts Committee today that "senior people" in Leinster House "made it clear that if they were not happy with the report, then they would prevent the report from being issued. They would take our report to the procedures committee to have it approved by them."

When asked who he was referring to he said: "I'm not going to name names, I'm talking about senior officials in the Dáil". He said he was not referring to TDs.

"I'm now making it very clear that as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, before this report was issued the question of legal challenge was raised by the Minister for Finance with me, NAMA raised it with me that they were considering it, and the senior officials in this house said they would consider their approach in terms of not allowing it.

"I think the fact that we did our work has strengthened our work," he said.

Mr Fleming also said that it was made clear to him that "NAMA had a dossier of all my previous comments in relation to the Comptroller and Auditor General".

He said that he had often been critical in the past of C&AG reports.

He said it was made clear to him that if the committee was "backing up the C&AG, that would be used to show, that on previous occasions, I had no problem criticising the C&AG".

However, in his letter to Mr Fleming, Mr Daly said that NAMA "does not, and never had, any such dossier relating to you or to any person."

Earlier, a number of committee members proposed that the Public Accounts Committee should formally write to Mr Noonan to seek an apology from him for the threat to injunct the committee.

But Fine Gael's Josepha Madigan accused members of the committee of "political manoeuvres".

The charge was rejected by fellow members.

Independent TD Catherine Connolly said the accusation that the committee was politically motivated when it criticised the Minister for Finance was "disgusting".