Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion
2:30 pm
Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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In respect of the noises off stage and on the assumption there will be a new Government in the first quarter of next year - I would not bet on it, but there will be a general election - does Mr. Daly have an opinion on the merits of revisiting the statute? Would it do anything to quell the noise? The overwhelming majority of Members of the House are waiting for some evidence from some of those making allegations about the discharge of duties in NAMA. They have seen no evidence, but the chorus goes on. We are opening up a new industry, in that we could be inquiring into NAMA for the next 25 years, which would provide a lot of employment for lawyers, accountants and so on. However, is the mystery being added to by some elements of the statute enacted in the febrile environment of 2009? Is there any tweaking of the legislation that would enable NAMA or the Minister for Finance to deal with some of the allegations? It is a case of "dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" and using parliamentary privilege to state it in the House and all NAMA can do is to state what Mr. Daly has said today.