Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

What about the Government's proposals? The Taoiseach has repeated the idea that NAMA will be established to solve the problem. In January, the Minister for Finance was asked about the idea of a bad bank. He said that he thought that a bad bank would be a free lunch for the other banks, paid for by the taxpayer. Less than three months later, he announced in the emergency budget what was in effect a bad bank, NAMA, to buy up the banks' bad debts and toxic assets.

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