The Government and Opposition have agreed in principle there should be a statutory commission of investigation into NAMA’s sale of Project Eagle.

They have met in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report that says the taxpayer possibly lost as much as €220m on the sale of the Northern loanbook.

Concern had been raised that any investigation would get bogged down in legal issues because of the two sovereign jurisdictions.

However Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin says he believes these difficulties can be overcome.

Mr Martin said: “There’s a lot of work that an inquiry can do, in terms of working within the Republic, access to documentation within Nama, Nama personnel.

“Remember in the banking inquiry, which had specific legislation, some of the key personalities involved in the banking world were not interviewed or brought before that inquiry.

“Yet we had an inquiry which shed considerable light on many of the issues pertaining to that, so I think it’s equally possible here.”