Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Labour Party for the ten minutes allocated to me. I take this opportunity to thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to register Sinn Féin's complete opposition to the NAMA proposals.

I must hand it to the Government, it is doing a great job robbing the people of this State. White collar crime is taken to a different level when the collar attached is the Minister for Finance. We found out today that NAMA will cost the Irish people €54 billion, which is approximately €12,000 for every man, woman and child in the State and that is before recapitalisation. Let us use the recent example of the Mr. Carroll case and the High Courts prediction that €77 billion worth of loans would be lucky to be repaid at €20 billion. This state is paying €54 billion for them, which is robbery. However, we are told by the elected representatives sitting opposite, it is a necessary robbery.

The banks loaned too much to a small number of profit-mad, greedy developers and the Government cheered them on with billions in tax-breaks. Now, our banking system is collapsed. Capitalism brought about the downfall but we cannot let capitalism sort itself out. The taxpayer must step in with €54 billion and bail out the banks, the developers and the most corrupt Government in the history of the State. We can privatise profit but we must socialise debt.

We cannot put any of this down to ineptitude. This Government knows exactly what it is doing to the Irish people. Fianna Fáil has a tradition of stealing from the taxpayer and then lying about it. Former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey is a class case in point and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had his own little misdemeanours. However, it is not alone those at the top of the party but councillors up and down the land who are up to their necks in sorry, seedy and greedy affairs. The words "brown" and "envelope" could have been invented for the Fianna Fáil Party. We have witnessed rezoning with brown envelopes handed over to corrupt councillors to ensure developers got their way. However, what they have done to date is nothing compared to what they are planning to do. Not only are they robbing this generation, they are robbing the next and future generations.

The long term economic value is a particular coup. Why would we want to push land prices up to the same level they reached at the height of the boom? How did these prices affect our competitiveness? If land does not reach these prices the State may well have shelled out more than €20 billion too much. A figure of €20 billion, which is a conservative estimate, would pay for a world-class free health service, an education system and a social security system. It is enough money to build a country to which tourists would want to come and in which business wants to invest. However, to Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, that figure is just numbers. Who cares, they will not be in Government when it all comes crashing down, which is the great thing about politics and postponement. The leader of the Green Party, Deputy John Gormley and the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, will be living comfortably on ministerial pensions when the real impact of NAMA hits.

As I stated earlier, it is the next and future generations that will pay for this. Sinn Féin has been calling all summer for a referendum on NAMA. One cannot put through a Bill of this magnitude without asking the majority of the people of this island if they support it. We all know why Fianna Fáil will not hold a referendum. They know asking people to vote "Yes" to NAMA is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. We are calling on all Deputies and Senators to sign the petition we have circulated calling on the President to initiate a referendum on this proposal. This issue is of such importance that it is imperative we ask the people what they want. Opposition Members, Independents and Government backbenchers will have the opportunity to step up to the mark by standing up to bankers, developers and the Government in its proposal for NAMA. To do otherwise is to capitulate to the powerful players in the banking system.

There is a way out of the black hole Fianna Fáil, together with its friends, the developers and speculators, has dug for this country. That way out is via nationalisation of the banking system. It would cost money but less so than NAMA. Moreover, taxpayers would then own the banks and they could be cleared out once and for all. It would be a people's banking system. Sinn Féin is not interested in temporary nationalisation as proposed by the Labour Party. We cannot advocate handing back the banks to the very people who ruined them. How can one justify allowing those who brought the country to its knees to remain in charge? Instead, we propose the creation of a State bank which would foster the economy and give ordinary citizens the right to a bank account and a secure and affordable mortgage. The reality is that the Government knows it may need to nationalise the banks in the wake of NAMA. Its protestations to the contrary are another example of how it has lied to the people. It is merely dragging out the cronyism as long as it can. Private property contractors will get to tender for the land taken over by NAMA. The key question is what price the latter will accept.

The Green Party's additional bows and ribbons do nothing to protect the taxpayer. That party should be ashamed of itself for what it is doing, with its Members desperately clinging onto their jobs while they hang the people out to dry. For many years I sat in this House listening to Green Party Members making constructive proposals. Now they have reneged on everything they stood for. They are pathetic. They should take five minutes out from pretending to save the planet and try to save the people who put them in this Parliament.

Sinn Féin is opposing NAMA because it is ultimately an attempt to legalise corruption. It is all about taxpayers picking up the tab for Galway tent politics. It is not only a step too far, it is a step off the cliff. The Government has pushed the people as far as they can be pushed. It is no longer a Government of the people. Its support has collapsed and it is now a dictatorship. NAMA is devised primarily to bail out bankers and developers. It was this same Galway tent cartel that exploited the economy for personal gain. It is the same cartel which, with the oil companies, has exploited our national resources for profit. The same cartel will now, through NAMA, exploit ordinary, decent taxpayers.

The people do not support Fianna Fáil's solutions to the economic crisis it caused and they do not want the Government. Fianna Fáil no longer has a mandate. If it proceeds with NAMA, pushes through all the cuts recommended by an bord snip nua and delivers the budget everybody is expecting, it will have ruined us. It should put itself to the test by calling an election and seeking support for its policies, but I have no expectation it will do so. Like the Green Party, Fianna Fáil will try to cling to power for as long as possible.

Throughout the State, viable small businesses are striving to survive and continue providing employment for ten or 15 people in their locality. Small businesses are the largest employers in rural areas but they are being driven to death's door by the refusal of the banks to provide credit. These institutions are the landlords of the 21st century. They oversee the very system that has contributed to the wreckage of the economy but are now begging the Government, via the taxpayer, to bail them out. It is ordinary people who must pay for the mistakes made by those in charge of the banking system.

Mortgage holders throughout the State, many of them young couples, are dependent on two incomes to meet their loan repayments. The same bankers the Government proposes to bail out are evicting people from their homes, taking ownership of their properties and then leasing them back to the former occupants. That is what is happening throughout the island. NAMA proposes to protect and bail out these banking interests. We propose instead that the system be nationalised. It is the people who should own the banks and these institutions must help those in need and deserving of support. That is the only way in which we can hope to restore the economy and have a country that reflects the ideals of those who founded it.

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