Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I refer to the briefing by the Minister for Finance in respect of NAMA. Remarks are attributed to the Northern Ireland First Minister, Mr. Peter Robinson, in respect of NAMA and the way in which it would operate. He indicated his fears that assets, which would be presumably covered by Irish banks and, therefore, part of the NAMA process, might be put for sale on the market and sold off cheaply. His major concern appeared to be that this would impact negatively on the Northern Ireland property market. I refer to the report in The Irish Times by Deaglán de Bréadún. Is the impact on the property market in Northern Ireland now a factor in respect of NAMA valuations? Judging by what the First Minister was saying, they would like to keep asset valuations high so as to prevent a property market dipping down further. This would imply that the taxpayer in the South would have to take those assets at an artificially high valuation because it does not sound like the value would be marked to market or anywhere near it.

Is this issue of the Northern Ireland property market now a major factor in the approach to the valuation of assets in the NAMA process? This would appear to be so from the report in The Irish Times. I am surprised that the discussion centred around the real economy and Main Street, rather than the property market and jobs because it is the restoration of jobs, sustaining employment and battling unemployment that I would have thought was the most important issue for Ireland, North and South. Are the comments attributed to the First Minister, Mr. Robinson-----

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