Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach invited me on the Order of Business to raise with the Minister for Finance the statutory instrument relating to NAMA which the Minister put on today's Order Paper. It appears to be an amended version of what we saw in the Act. It specifies a particular risk discount of 1.7% risk rate discount, which seems an extraordinarily low discount to apply to the flows of income projected in respect of these highly risky property ventures. It also builds in the estimated €7 billion long-term economic value that the taxpayer is being asked to pay over and above the market valuation by NAMA.

This deserves a debate in the House. It would appear to have been amended to some degree following the Minister's discussions with the European Commission. When I asked the Taoiseach, he suggested I should wait until the Minister arrived to see whether there would be an opportunity to debate this. He seemed to suggest this would be the appropriate time to do this - I am not sure whether he was promising beyond his entitlement.

This is a significant document. It is the rules of engagement under which NAMA will acquire the property. There are technical assumptions contained in it and we need to understand the implications of what we are signing off on. I see it was signed by the Minister on 3 March, so it is relatively fresh off the printing press and was just tabled on the Order Paper today.

See this speech in context