Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I should like the Minister to answer three points as regards the NAMA proposal, the most importance of which is how are the toxic assets to be priced in a transparent manner that commands public confidence? The Minister mentioned an advisory committee. Presumably, like all of the other parties in this process, it will be a secret committee because that is effectively what has been happening since the giving of the guarantee - secrecy with minimum information. The Minister has told us nothing about the funding of the asset purchases and the year by year cost of the associated public debts, the enormous increase in our interest costs and the cost of servicing our debt, as a consequence. There is the absence of a commitment to public accountability and oversight, similar to the procedures put in place in the USA and most successfully in Sweden where the banks had to be rescued, as well as in Finland. The Government has avoided all three points and the Minister will not tell us how he proposes to deal with them. No wonder people on the doorsteps are in a rage as regards what they are going to be charged in respect of NAMA.

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