THE DEPARTMENT of Finance shelved the establishment of a board of senior legal, business and political figures to advise on the setting up of the National Asset Management Agency as it would have slowed down the drafting of legislation creating the agency.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had planned to announce an advisory committee in May 2009 to be consulted on the establishment of Nama and issues to be considered in creating the agency.

Senior department officials drafted a list of more than 30 candidates made up of senior figures from business, legal and political circles and long-standing public representatives from which the Minister could fill the committee.

However, the department shelved the idea of an interim advisory board and set up a steering group to establish Nama instead.

The steering group was made up of representatives of the department, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Office of the Attorney General.

A spokesman for the department said the idea of an advisory board was considered but once the steering group began its work, priority “had to be given to draft the legislation without which Nama could not operate in practice”.

“Drafting the legislation and guiding it through the Oireachtas as quickly as possible was key,” said the spokesman. “The establishment of an interim board would have added another layer to the process of drafting the legislation and slowed it down. Therefore the idea of an interim board was allowed to pass.” After Nama was established under statute, the Minister had a free hand to appoint the board. “This was done through a public request for nominees and the appointments only after consultation with the opposition.”

Among department records released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act is a list of redacted names that was passed to the Minister from Kevin Cardiff, now secretary general at the department, for consideration.

“Following your April 7th announcement of a National Asset Management Agency, an interim advisory board should be appointed in the coming weeks,” Mr Cardiff said in an internal memo seen by the Minister.

“Set out below for consideration are the names of individuals who have qualifications that may make them suitable for consideration as board members, representing a cross-section of business, legal and public and political experience.”

Mr Cardiff told the Minister his selections “need not be automatically assigned to the final Nama board, and there is no reason why a smaller group could not be established at first and expanded as appropriate later.”

Among the names listed are a former IMF official Steven Seelig and former Fingal county manager Willie Soffe, who were later appointed to the board of Nama.