Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

If we have learnt anything in the past 12 years, it is that the Fianna Fáil Party cannot be trusted to make the right decisions because its members listen to the wrong people. Fianna Fáil is no longer the party of the ordinary people; it is the party of the establishment. It is easy to be brave when taking away €10 million for cervical cancer vaccination or medical cards from pensioners. However, when it comes to standing up against the elite and the vested interests it has caved in completely. This money is being sucked out of the system without the public seeing it. It is not as if NAMA were to tax child benefit or whatever else. The people will be on the streets when its impact hits home.

I wish to say something about the Green Party, the junior member in Government. If its Ministers, Deputies Gormley and Ryan, vote in favour of NAMA, they are sending out a message that in this Republic the people of influence and money continue to rule. The Green Party spent the last week telling anyone who would listen that it had effected major changes in the draft legislation. It did so with great enthusiasm and exuberance. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, claimed that the Government had agreed on "equal sharing of the risk between NAMA and the banks", in other words, 50:50. Yesterday, we saw what those fine words mean in practice. The value of the subordinated bonds which will be offered to the banks, under NAMA's risk-sharing mechanism, amounts to 5% of the total price. Somewhere along the way, a zero went missing. If anyone finds it, send it to the Green Party promptly.

The Green Party also told us last week, with barely concealed excitement, that there was going to be a social dividend. What it meant, of course, is the State will vastly overpay for land which it may then make available to local communities. If the Green Party wants to make community pitches available, why can the Government not buy it at market value now instead of paying over the price for land that could be transferred to communities?

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