Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The most extraordinary aspect of the revised NAMA business plan is the board's admission of a deterioration in its original estimates with losses of €5 billion now predicted. The House has got so used to talking in billions that the value of money has lost its meaning. The outcome, however, of these decisions has left people with an extraordinary debt overhang. While I never contested the banking problem would cost much money, if the Labour Party's proposals – even variations of them - had been accepted, we would have some functioning banks now with only half of what the Government spent.

NAMA's revised business plan contained one line stating derivatives worth €14 billion were being taken off the banks' balance sheets and taken on by the taxpayer. During the crisis, we were repeatedly given the Lehman Brothers defence which Regling, Watson and Honohan blew out of the water by pointing out that the Lehman collapse was irrelevant as the crisis was homemade. We were also told constantly that there was no problem with complex financial instruments affecting our banks.

Yet, now in the revised NAMA business plan up pops €14 billion of derivatives with a note saying a considerable amount of these have no value. The business plan states:

Derivative transactions with a nominal value of €14bn (principally interest rate swaps) will also be transferred. A substantial number of these derivatives are nonperforming and NAMA will pay nil consideration to acquire them.

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