Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

It is with great regret that I come here today to speak on this buyout Bill. Our once mighty export economy has been brought to its knees by the current and immediate past administrations. No two men have contributed more to the destruction of wealth in this State than the construction industry's chief cheerleader, former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, and the "asleep at the wheel" former Minister for Finance, the current Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen. Builders and developers deserve blame for this catastrophe as well as the bankers who threw prudence out the window in pursuit of a quick buck. However, they were facilitated at every turn by the organs of the State controlled by Fianna Fáil. Where was the regulation? It was dumbed down so that questions would not be asked and bankers could do what they liked.

For the past five years, the economy has been run primarily for the benefit of the construction industry. We knew the colour of the former Taoiseach's money when he asked why people urging caution on the economy had not committed suicide. The current Taoiseach took up that cause to attack people for warning of what was ahead. He said that the fundamentals were fine. The country then slammed into the middle of an international credit crisis as badly prepared as any other, with the possible exception of Iceland. Our property bubble was bursting and Brian Cowen was ignoring it until it was too late.

It took the worst kind of Minister for Finance to allow what was a culture of complacency to creep into the Financial Regulator's office and into the Central Bank. Even as the tide was going out there was no sense that either the then Minister for Finance or his successor were taking regulation seriously, until the directors of the banks themselves showed up one evening asking for their liquidity to be shored up on the back of the taxpayer. Banks were giving each other dig-outs to fool any observers on directors' loans or the strength of their balance sheets. It shamed this nation.

The current Minister for Finance told us six months ago that this legislation was urgent. He then realised he should be a lot more thorough in his thinking about the legislation, when Dr. Michael Somers came before the Committee of Public Accounts and warned us all about the legal pitfalls that were coming. The Minister had to be shaken out of his complacency. He then changed tack and the imperative to be urgent became the imperative to be thorough, even though the economic need was still urgent. It has taken a long time for the Minister to do what has been urgently required and yet he will not do what is transparent and let the country see that the individual valuations are fair for all, including the taxpayer. Having minimal scope for immediate scrutiny of a massive transfer of assets is a dangerous road for the Minister to take. If the Green Party is serious about transparency, I trust it will do right by the State.

I have a series of questions for the Minister, and I will ask them now as time is short. Is there any reason not to believe that every cent the banks receive on the strength of the money from the Government will go straight to pay off their debts? In other words, has the Government anything at all in its plan to get credit back to small businesses? So far, the answer has been a resounding "No". Is the Government considering setting up a wholesale bank to get credit flowing again, as proposed by Fine Gael? How much extra capital will Anglo Irish Bank need? Will Irish Nationwide Building Society be wound up? If so, at what cost? How much extra capital will AIB and Bank of Ireland need?

When will the third banking force come into being? What is the book value of the property on loans under €5 million in the five banks? What is the total book value of the five banks' non-performing loans outside of the NAMA-bound loans? What is the total rolled up interest on these banks' books? If credit is to flow, we must know if what is left with the banks is sustainable.

Will all board members and top executives that drove the banks aground in 2008 and up to then be asked to leave within six months? If the Carroll companies are spending tens of thousands of euro in the courts to get to NAMA, how insolvent will a company have to be to be wound up by NAMA? Will NAMA be accepting the fanciful projections that were provided to the High Court by Carroll's companies and others? Why is the Minister for Finance relying on rents as an indicator of the market bottoming out, when he knows about businesses being stuck with upward-only rent agreements and when we have had some of the highest rents in the world? Will developers know the discount given for their loans? What feedback on NAMA did the Government receive at the Irish diaspora economic forum? Will NAMA be able to give developers discounts on their loans? Will there be a change in the Government bank guarantee scheme introduced in September 2008?

What will NAMA do with the hotels that may come into its control? Will NAMA be able to liquidate a delinquent developer and transfer all the assets to another NAMA developer? Has the Green Party accepted the principle of overpaying for these development loans? Has the Green Party abandoned the whole principle of transparency?

We are living in momentous times and the decisions we are confronted with in the next few months will reverberate in Irish life for decades. Therefore, we must be brave and smart or we will lose much of what we still have after the Celtic tiger. We must cut our cloth to fit our measure and move to shelter the vulnerable from the worst of the changes taking place. We cannot ask the people of Ireland to pay billions more for assets than they are worth and also remain ignorant of the price they are paying for each one. Our Government, which is the least trusted in the history of the State, is dealing with the industry that dominated its economic thinking over the last decade. We cannot afford to let this pass and the questions must be answered before the vote is taken.

We cannot have business as usual for Fianna Fáil, because accountability and transparency are not high on its agenda. These should be the central ingredients of NAMA. If NAMA is handled badly, developers will celebrate it - there is anecdotal evidence they are already celebrating the birth of NAMA - and could be nursed along -----

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