THE PROPOSED National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to acquire banks’ bad debts and loans, could be as big a “bureaucratic disaster” as the Health Service Executive (HSE), said Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton.

Calling for a debate on the agency, Ms Burton said it was now proposed to create “this massive agency, bigger than the HSE, on a shadow basis. That was the beginning of the bureaucratic disaster of the HSE.”

She was speaking in the Dáil after Tánaiste Mary Coughlan confirmed the Government had “decided to consider the possibility of the establishment of an interim board to prepare the scope of the preparatory work that needs to be done”, for the agency.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton had earlier expressed concern about how the agency would operate initially and he described legislation for the creation of the agency as “possibly the most important legislation the House will ever pass”. He warned that “the scale of the commitment we are entering into on behalf of the taxpayer is unprecedented”.

Mr Bruton noted comments by the Taoiseach that “he is to proceed on the basis of an interim board being established over the summer”. He sought clarity about what legal authority the interim board would act under and was concerned it would “make decisions that compromise the position of the Dáil”.

He said an interim board which would enter negotiations with the banks “will reduce the room for manoeuvre of this House which must set the framework for this legislation. We need to have some certainty regarding what authority it will be operating under. If it makes decisions about, for example, the price at which assets might be purchased we will be undermining the freedom of the Dáil to strike a fair balance.”

Ms Coughlan said it was a priority for the Government and the heads of the legislation were being worked on: “We hope to have this legislation passed during this session, if at all possible, and preparation is under way”. Ms Burton claimed “tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs and becoming redundant because these people on the Government benches cannot organise saving our banking and economic systems”. She said “our country is going down the tubes because the Government cannot even permit a debate”, but Ms Coughlan said it was a matter for the party whips to agree a debate.