Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The new structures will provide improved levels of enforcement, more responsible and transparent lending policies and ensure a financial sector that acts in the interest of the customer rather than with an eye to short-term gain.

Most of the Opposition Deputies have concentrated on the risk to the taxpayers that NAMA will not recover sufficient funds to pay back the bonds issued. They have ignored the very real risk to the taxpayer that the economy is paralysed by banks which are unable to lend. I believe that the passing of the National Asset Management Agency Bill is absolutely vital if our economy is to recover in the coming years and if we are to defeat the scourge of unemployment that is blighting so many lives in the country today. Passing the legislation will cleanse the balance sheets of the Irish banks and so enable them to increase the provision of credit which is their core role in the economy. Along with the other initiatives that this Government has taken over the past year with regard to restoring competitiveness and bringing order to the public finances, it will bring us a long way towards positioning ourselves to take the earliest possible advantage of the global economic recovery when it takes hold.

I commend this legislation to the House.

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