Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am not just saying this for the sake of having a vote. I really mean it.

I assume that the proposed date of 16 September is because of the publication of the NAMA legislation, or that the House is coming back to discuss that legislation.

Last week the German Government put through its legislation dealing with their bad banks and it has already settled on a price level from mid-2008 for the acquisition of assets. We are now nine months on and we still have a very small number of people employed in NAMA. We do not know what the discount will be and as a consequence, with banks informing their shareholders, bank share values are increasing and the country's credit is continuing to decline. We need to have a much clearer fix on this situation.

There are other issues. The Tánaiste is also the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Many thousands of small businesses cannot get access to credit and liquidity and overdraft facilities and by the time NAMA becomes effective, which could well be mid-2010, I can predict there will be thousands of small businesses no longer in business. The Tánaiste needs to do something to prevent the leakage out of the economy by higher taxes, by bringing in some fiscal stimulus. The VAT regime is not working and the rates of VAT should be changed to provide that fiscal stimulus for a limited period of, say, two years, to give some incentive and some injection to create and to protect jobs.

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