The Opposition has again urged the Government to abandon the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) as the Bill to establish it came before the Dáil again today.
Addressing the House today, Labour's Liz McManus noted that Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz last night said temporary nationalisation of the banks, if required, would be the better way to proceed.
"That is the Labour Party view also but when the Minister for Finance published this Bill it was described as the “only show in town”. Any alternative proposition was rejected out of hand yet no basis was provided for this extraordinary claim. Where is the empirical evidence? Had a panel of objective experts from outside this country given an assessment on the various options we might have a very different Bill to debate," Ms McManus said.
"Instead we have spurious claims from the Government and the repeated 'only show of town' mantra.
"The banks have been lending hand over fist to the wrong people. That is what has us in such trouble. Now we have to ensure that they lend to the right people - SMEs who are the backbone of our economy. We cannot depend on empty words of reassurance from Minister Lenihan," she said.
Noting the Government "is intent on taking it [Nama] whatever we on this side of the House think of it", the Labour frontbencher called for it to be amended to proved safeguards for the public.
"Provision should be made for a whistleblowers' charter to cover staff in Nama-covered institutions, debtors, advisers and service providers to ensure the highest ethical standards. Accountability needs to be stitched into the Bill so that robust checks and balances to ensure that Ministers cannot use Nama for their own purposes," Ms McManus said.
Also speaking in the Dáil, fellow Labour TD Mary Upton said the major flaw in the Nama scheme was "the deliberate, delusional decision" to overpay for assets "when the market has not yet bottomed out".
"This decision was described yesterday by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz as 'criminal'. Many assets have fallen by substantially more than 47 per cent," she said.
"There is simply no credible, non-partisan information to support the Minister's contention that we have reached the bottom of the market," Ms Upton said. "I would urge the Minister to act sensibly and for the good of the country on Nama. It is not too late to pay heed to the words of John Maynard Keynes, 'When the facts change, I change my mind'. The facts have changed. Everything that we have learned about Nama and the toxic triangle screams of the need to reassess this proposal."
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton also referenced the comments made by Prof Stiglitz on Prime Timelast night.
In a statement, Mr Bruton said Prof Stiglitz "has rubbished the scaremongering by the Government and its banking friends" that Fine Gael’s tough policy on the banks will scare off private investors in Ireland and make it difficult for the Government to borrow money.
“There is still an opportunity to ditch the massive Nama gamble and adopt Fine Gael’s safer and more effective solution to fixing the banks by setting up a National Recovery Bank,” he said.
