The head of the Public Accounts Committee has warned that its investigation into the sale of Nama loans could be stifled by a Government delay.

It has emerged that an audit by the Comptroller & Auditor General is almost finished, but has to be published by the Minister for Finance before TDs can investigate.

It has also emerged that the Minister does not have to publish the report for up to 90 days, meaning the PAC could be barred from investigating into October.

PAC chairman Sean Fleming said that it is important that the long-awaited inquiry is not stalled.

“There are occasions where the Minister has 90 days in other reports, they’ve gone to the 90th day, and that could be the end of October, so that’s no good,” he said.,

“We would ask the Minister to publish it straight away, and explain to him that we would have meetings scheduled on the 29th of September, and we will want it sufficiently in advance of that to allow us to have a productive meeting.”