Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin received an anonymous threat warning her to stop asking questions about Nama following a meeting of the Dail's finance committee in which she had voiced concerns in relation to the agency's sale of developer Michael O'Flynn's loans to US private equity giant Blackstone.

Deputy Mulherin, who is a constituency colleague of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, revealed the existence of the chilling correspondence in the course of a Dail debate on the Finance Bill last Wednesday night.

Having raised the matter of Nama's sale of the O'Flynn Group's loans at the finance committee on October 22 last, Ms Mulherin told the Dail how she had subsequently received "threatening correspondence, which was anonymous, as all cowards send such correspondence [anonymously]".

Contacted by the Sunday Independent, Ms Mulherin made it clear that the threat which warned her that she would lose her Dail seat if she continued asking questions about Nama would not deter her from questioning the agency over its operations.

Addressing the Dail last Wednesday, Ms Mulherin reiterated concerns she had expressed to Nama CEO Brendan McDonagh at the finance committee that his agency had failed to achieve the best return for the taxpayer when it sold the loans of the Cork-based O'Flynn Group to Blackstone in the face of a higher bid from a rival bidder.

Mr McDonagh confirmed to the finance committee on that occasion that Blackstone's winning bid had been lower than that offered by another fund. He said Nama had accepted it on the basis that it was "all cash" while the higher bid had been "conditional".

Not content with that explanation, or with the Nama CEO's decision not to disclose the difference between Blackstone's bid and the higher bid which is understood to have been tabled by the New York-based investment fund, Davidson Kempner, Deputy Mulherin took the matter up in a series of parliamentary questions to Finance Minister Michael Noonan. In his response, the minister insisted Nama had achieved the "best price" for the O'Flynn Group loans.

Commenting on Mr Noonan's written replies in the Dail last Wednesday, Ms Mulherin said: "The response I received was one of the most pitiful I have seen and the [minister's] staff have something to answer for. They could only give me information based on what Nama had stated at the committee. It did not need to be repeated to me." While the Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett warned the Fine Gael TD not to "involve" officials in any statement she made in the Dail, Ms Mulherin went on to allege that her questions in relation to the O'Flynn loan sale had been "doctored".

Expressing her frustration, she said: "I cannot obtain confirmation of what the small difference was or that the taxpayer received value for money, other than what was stated at the committee meeting. There does not seem to be any transparency or accountability. Nama seems to be stating the highest bidder in this case, a globally trading hedge fund which I understand has at least $23bn in assets, did not have the funds to go through with the purchase, which I cannot believe, and that a short-listing process took place. There are many questions to be answered."

Sunday Independent