Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Here we go again.

The scenario outlined in the draft plan for the National Asset Management Agency of a profit of €4.8 billion was based, as stated in the first sentence of that report, on the information being provided by the banks at the time. The agency has now produced its quarterly report, as required under the Act, and is setting out its central projection based on current asset valuations, projecting forward for the next ten years. The board is making the point that the agency should emerge with a profit, as it sees it. The report sets out other scenarios where the agency might make a higher profit or else make some losses. If losses do emerge, they will be levyable on the financial institutions concerned.

That is what the board of NAMA is saying, but the Deputy is misrepresenting that. He is trying to suggest that I am saying one thing and the Minister is saying another. The National Asset Management Agency is making the assessment on the basis of the detailed data it now has which are based on the loans it has brought over from the balance sheets of the banks. The purpose of the agency is to provide for a viable banking system and to provide the prospect of credit. The Deputy is suggesting he has the right policies, but his policy in this regard was to default. The European monetary system is prepared to bring forward provision in the order of €750 billion to protect the currency on the basis that it does not wish to see any default. The Deputy, however, is bringing forward the idea that we in this country we can have a default mechanism.

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