Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I have a great deal of sympathy with the arguments he advances. It is regrettable that when the NAMA legislation was enacted it was not possible for the House to agree that an oversight committee of the House should be established to monitor NAMA's affairs. I advocated that argument at the time and it was debated. Given the huge significance of this issue, an oversight committee of the House would have been very helpful both within and outside the House.

If there were more openness about the transactions taking place, it would assist the re-emergence of a market. Part of the difficulty we have been suffering for the last three years of stasis in the market following the effective collapse of the banking system is the absence of openness about the transactions that are taking place. The view has been put to me, and I am inclined to believe it has merit, that if there was a requirement for notification of transactions taking place, be it with regard to commercial rents or the purchase of properties both domestic and commercial, it would assist in the re-emergence of a market. People would know where they stand and this would help to establish a floor in the market.

None of this is happening because, as Deputy Costello has argued, many of these transactions are effectively secret at present. Apart from anything else, that encourages bad practices whereby estate agents are reverting to old bad habits by puffing and mystifying the terms of actual transactions. All that is unhelpful. I will counsel my colleagues that this ought to be examined carefully. Deputy Costello is aware that my colleague, Deputy Howlin, the Minister with responsibility for public expenditure and reform is focused on these issues in the context of the Government's reform programme. I can assure the Deputy that whether it is NAMA, the National Treasury Management Agency the Central Bank or other publicly-funded bodies in the banking and financial sector, the arguments he has raised will be given full consideration by my colleagues.

The Government is committed to an elaborate reform programme in respect of legislation to restore the Freedom of Information Act and the extension of its remit to public bodies such as the Garda Síochána. Obviously, it will not include the security dimensions of the Garda but it will be extended to the administrative side. The Government will extend the Freedom of Information Act and the Ombudsman Act to ensure that all statutory bodies, and all bodies significantly funded from the public purse, are covered. These are far-reaching reforms which are being spearheaded by the Minister, Deputy Howlin. The programme set out for him in the programme for Government is significant. He is consulting with other Ministers on the effective repeal of the 2003 amendment Act in its entirety, the inclusion of all statutory bodies including those under the aegis of the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice and Equality in particular and the identification of any other concerns that might exist regarding the impact of the Freedom of Information Acts on the discharge of Government business.

The issues raised by Deputy Costello are very important and I believe my colleagues in Government share my opinion. We are trying to get a handle on NAMA's position at present. Everybody knows how the architecture of NAMA was created and came into being; there is no point in going back over the arguments. It is in existence. Questions of commercial sensitivity arise and also with regard to matters to do with confidentiality in its proper place, but that is not to say there ought not to be oversight, and ideally parliamentary oversight.

Questions of transparency ought to be dealt with. I am sure that my colleague, the Minister with responsibility for public expenditure and reform, Deputy Howlin, will respond in due course.

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