Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

When will the Bill establishing the proposed national asset management agency be published? How far in advance of the Second Stage debate on that legislation will it be made available to Members of this House? Within what timeframe does the Government envisage the legislation will be enacted? In the interim, will the Government publish a briefing paper for the benefit of Deputies, detailing the mechanism it intends to use to determine the values of the asset-backed loans that will be the subject of this Bill? We need to ensure the taxpayer will be protected. We need to factor into those values the risk that is to be borne by the taxpayer.

Will the Bill, or other legislation, be enacted to ensure the agency is accountable to a committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas? Will there be a degree of transparency in its workings so that Members of the House and the public alike might be made aware of the value of the loan book they have acquired when it is taken from the banks? We must know what steps will be taken to recover borrowings from debtors and realise assets and to ensure that the agency is immune from any influence that any person might attempt to impose on it in order to do favours for the friends of Fianna Fáil and to release them from borrowings that should never have been made available to them in the first place.

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