Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The establishment of NAMA will affect everyone. If any Member on this side of the House believed it was the right approach, they would back the Government immediately. However, it is not.

I joined the workforce, aged 15 years, when we joined the EEC and since then have watched the country slowly progress. We have stopped going to other countries to build their infrastructure and now build our own. It is fantastic to see how our cities, towns, roads, education and quality of life have progressed.

However, two years ago we knew that such accelerated growth rates as we had recently experienced could not be sustained. Wages and prices were out of control and a crash became inevitable. What annoys me more than anything is that we allowed ourselves get stuck in a property pyramid selling scheme. Ludicrous prices were paid for property. It was not good enough to buy land and build property on it. It had to be sold on again shortly after it was bought for a profit. Eventually houses were built on it. In County Meath I recall land being sold for €11 million which was then dickied up with a bit of planning permission. Six months later it was sold again for €17 million.

I do not mind supporting businesses. Ireland has some of the best builders but there are cowboys too who will get away with it through the NAMA legislation. Fine Gael's alternative to NAMA is a good plan. I have been lobbied more than any other Deputy by people in the building industry to support NAMA. It is very easy to support 1% of the community but what about the other 99%?

All Members are receiving the same complaints about the banks. I heard the case today of a farmer who employs seven people being told recently by his bank's agricultural adviser to plant his brussels sprouts crop for the Christmas market. When he had it done at a cost of €900,000, the bank informed him it could not provide him with a credit facility. The day before a constituent from Kells rang me about his situation. He and his wife were earning €2,500 a week but when they lost both jobs their income went down to €480 while they still had to pay a mortgage of €3,500 a month. The bank brought them to court and sent the sheriff to collect €6,500 worth of property from the house. The only things he had were his beds and two ponies for the kids. That is not the Ireland we were brought up to believe in. That is where the injustice and immorality is.

I was delighted to hear the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, who is from my area, call it as it is. Not alone are we taking on the loans, we are taking on the property. We legislators are buying this property on behalf of the people. How can anyone justify paying the price the Government is paying for this land and land abroad? The cowboys bucked everyone who took out a mortgage. It was not good enough to do it to their own people but they had to go to Poland, Bulgaria and America and do the same. We are left with their mess. The bankers who gave them the money - not my local bank manager but those at the top - creamed it, because for every €1,000 they loaned they received a bonus. They sold money to others within the banks to buy their own shares to keep the prices up.

The people will not let us get away with this. Nobody is doing anything for those who have mortgages for €300,000 or €400,000. One by one small businesses in Duleek, Navan and Drogheda are closing. They cannot pay rates, VAT or PRSI. That is what I find disgusting. We sat back and allowed pyramid selling. While I appreciate that people do not want to spend money on inquiries there should be a full inquiry. A plot of land in County Meath was sold one day for €11 million and six months later made €17 million. Other lands were sold three and four times before a builder put a house on them. I could not believe it when I heard of one bank, I think it was Irish Nationwide, giving money to a man to buy land in a deal under which it was to get back some of the profit on the land but then gave the money to an unfortunate young married couple who are now stuck with the mortgage.

There is a theory in this House that Fianna Fáil is backed by builders but Fine Gael is against them. We are not. Ninety per cent of builders are great but the cowboy builders and bankers are getting away with this. That is why I am totally opposed to NAMA. It will not work. As the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, says, we have had 74 years of zoned land. How can one value land that has been zoned for 74 years in Dundalk? It is not worth €5,000 an acre. Thirty per cent of the buildings in the country are lying idle. This is what we are taking on. NAMA cannot work because there is far too much money involved.

I was disgusted when we on this side of the House were told that we offered no options. When Deputy Bruton made his speech last week in which he explained what he wanted done, with a mix of ideas, everybody on the Government side walked out, as if they were programmed to believe that there is only one way, Deputy Brian Lenihan's way, and no other. There are other ways. Everyone has good ideas. Deputy Brian Lenihan's way will not work because we have overstepped the mark in the amount we paid for property. My children and grandchildren will pay for it.

It is not possible to have people involved in a business such that land that should have been sold for building was sold three times on at massive profits. These people were not even builders. We stood by and let it happen. We knew it was happening. Every Deputy in the House hears the same complaints. If the Green Party backs NAMA it will be extinct, like the dodo. It cannot back NAMA. Anyone who lives in the real world knows what has happened. It was savage, cruel and wrong. I respect our ex-Taoiseach as a person but his statement in Donegal that people should go and hang themselves was wrong.

The warning was there. It took a long time to get this country to where it is today. Ninety-five per cent of our builders are good builders but the other 5% whom we are backing are cowboys. It was grand to buck the Irish. Then they left the country to try to buck the poor Poles and the Latvians and start the game again. Now we have to buy property in these countries for which we have no regard and we do not even know what will happen.

If the Green Party wants to be like the dodo it will vote for NAMA. All the Fianna Fáil Deputies are hearing the same complaints as me, from small businesses and farmers. Last week I went to the bank to try to get a loan with my daughter. The banks will lend only to students now, anyone can check the records.

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