Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

-----subordinated bonds that were involved in that case.

Our approach to the debate is that we are determined to try to stop this Bill. We believe that it is a mistake, but we are not going to be pigheaded. If we lose the debate on the principle, we will persist in trying to get the best deal to protect the taxpayer in anything that goes ahead. We want to see amendments. We want to see a reversion to market value as the only basis on which taxpayers should be exposed. We want to see a willingness to allow involuntary losses for the subordinated bondholders in these banks. We want to see a satisfactory methodology of valuation that does not have Ministers at the heart of the appeal mechanism and no appeal system where it is proposed to pay too much for those assets. We only want an appeal mechanism where the banks feel they got too little.

We want to see the flawed risk sharing proposal adopted by the Minister changed to one that is robust and of the type advocated by the current Governor of the Central Bank. We want to see the unacceptable recovery system, which is shrouded in secrecy, exposed, with full disclosure and the protection of the Comptroller and Auditor General. He should be in a position to objectively advise the House on how business is being conducted on our behalf. We want to see proper Oireachtas oversight of this extraordinary animal the Minister is creating.

We want to see robust mechanisms that will ensure liquidity flows. In our view, that robust mechanism is the establishment of a national recovery bank. We want to see that proposal embraced and included. We want to see proper disclosure of all beneficiaries. If the Government wins this principle, we need to remould this legislation from top to bottom. It is a dangerous piece of legislation. We have to move away from the principle.

At this late stage I still appeal to the Minister to look at the alternative approaches that have been successful in other countries that have learned from the mistakes of NAMA, but the Minister is not adopting the lessons they have learnt. We need to pull back from the NAMA approach and set as our priority the creation of a vehicle that gets credit to people and businesses that need it. That has to be our top priority. The trouble is that what we are seeing today is that after almost ten years of bad management of our public finances, the Bill is coming home to the doorstep of the taxpayer. It is a bill for €54,000 million. We should not lightly ask the taxpayer to pick up that bill when there are many better alternatives that would be more cost effective, fairer and better for our country.

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