Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No. I will read out the paragraph about the dividend. "Under the shareholders’ agreement, the maximum return which will be paid to the private investors by way of dividend is restricted to the 10 year Irish Government Bond Yield applying at the date of the declaration of the dividend." So it can change. The interest rate is based on the Government borrowing rates. They are not getting an exorbitant interest rate. It is based on the Government borrowing rate and then there can be another small amount of a dividend given on the winding up of the company. When they get all their money back, the €51 million plus the dividend and their final dividend and when that company is dissolved, the surplus of €3.5 million in NAMA can then come to the State. This has to happen first. I say that by way of information. The date that written parliamentary question was answered was 10 October. We will write to the Minister and NAMA to ask why the accounts of the holding company for the past five years were published? I found it interesting. When it comes to social housing, I see no reason why on a temporary basis, to deal with the housing emergency as we did with the financial one, we cannot come to an accounting arrangement, as it is called in the reply by the Minister to the parliamentary question, that would allow a company to technically own 51%. The State would have a veto on all operations and it would take all borrowings off the State's balance sheet. The argument we cannot borrow because of EUROSTAT is right but if we go about it this way, we certainly can. It is an eye-opener. It sets a precedent. When the Government wanted to get permission to borrow tens of billions off the State balance sheet, there was an accounting mechanism introduced to satisfy EUROSTAT and I think it could be used for other purposes. It is up to members. I think they get where I am coming from.