Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

There has been no change in policy on development loans. I am not sure about Deputy Bruton's reference to screening. The position on the transfer of loan assets remains as stated in the budget speech. The land and development loans of each bank involved will be transferred. This includes loans secured on development land and property under development, whether performing or non-performing. The book value referred to by the Deputy is not accurate in respect of the total value of the performing or non-performing loans. In addition to landbank loans, the associated exposures in commercial loans where there is a common link between the commercial and development loan are also included in the total book value figure.

Regarding political participation, the legislation will be published later this month. The legislation will contain legal formulae and the House will want much more information on the strategy of the Government and NAMA prior to the enactment of the legislation. It is a start to have the legal framework available to Deputies over the summer because it will give them an opportunity to evaluate a basic framework. I am interested in hearing the opinions of Deputies in that regard.

I am not involved in price setting and I do not know how anyone would want to be involved in it. Criteria must be laid down in legislation and must be worked out in detail. The NTMA has retained the services of the HSBC and Jones Lang LaSalle for the valuation of the loans. They are valuing the loans on a commercial, market basis. The EU is laying down guidelines on how loans should be valued and we must follow them.

Regarding nationalisation, there is nothing new in what the IMF said. I said it in the supplementary budget speech. If the result of the NAMA exercise and the scale of the losses occasioned by NAMA is such that the bank requires fresh capitalisation, I indicated in the budget speech that the State would capitalise by ordinary equity investment in the relevant institution.

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