Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The top ten to 15 developers listed in the Minister's draft NAMA management plan will be dealt with in the first 30 days and, therefore, possibly by Christmas. According to everything I have heard about Anglo Irish Bank, the top ten to 15 developers were heavily supported by this bank. Is that not so? I do not say the other institutions are not also involved with these developers but Anglo Irish Bank was the developers' bank. It was a development bank. The Minister and I or the people on the main streets of Cahirciveen or Dundalk did not obtain loans from this bank. The top developers in the State, not couples buying a house, secured loans from the bank.

INBS will transfer €8 billion in loans to NAMA. It is a little building society that was set up to enable people to save and purchase a family home in which to live and not to speculate on. Anglo Irish Bank, INBS, their associates and customers used extensive tax avoidance mechanisms onshore through tax breaks that the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern and Mr. Charlie McCreevy gave to them to boost the bubble that has destroyed the economy and offshore in the Isle of Man, to mention one little local offshore island that is heavily involved in assisting persons who wish to avoid and evade tax. What is the meaning of the two amendments, particularly the reference to "prohibition in any applicable law"?

If the little subsidiaries in the dear little Isle of Man say it is prohibited by their law to give information to NAMA, the Revenue or anybody else, will NAMA be forced to accept that and to accept that both the credit institutions they deal with and the customers of the credit institutions with bad loans can say the agency cannot examine their offshore activities in nice little tax havens such as this because the Minister's amendment made provision for acknowledging "prohibition in any applicable law"? This is a problem because securing full disclosure of assets will be critical to whether the agency is taken for the biggest ride ever by those who caused the property bubble to burst or to whether it is capable of securing to the full extent the assets and liabilities, genuinely helping to clean up our banking system and restoring Ireland's reputation. It is a very simple question and I would like a simple answer.

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