The Finance Minister has confirmed that he will co-operate with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) investigation, according to Deputy Chairperson of the Finance Committee Claire Hanna MLA.

Ms Hanna said the investigation, into the sale of the NAMA Northern Ireland property portfolio to Cerberus Capital Management, has been stymied by a lack of co-operation including the Department of Finance.

She said: "I am pleased to say that the present Finance Minister, in a comprehensive answer, assured me that he is willing to co-operate with our investigation.

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"The SDLP are committed to shining a light in every corner of this shady deal and flipping over every stone in our effort to get to the truth. As many of these stones lie within the Department of Finance then a vital first step was achieving the co-operation of the new Minister."

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said: "As pledged, I have reviewed the material provided to the previous Committee. In the interests of transparency and public confidence the department has now provided the Committee with a further set of papers with the majority of redactions removed, where that has been possible within the department’s data protection obligations.

"I can also confirm that this includes the specific piece of information that I referred to in the Assembly on Monday 20 June, which I also believed to be in the public interest."

(CD/MH)