Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for his constructive suggestions about keeping this matter under review. I have been informed by the Minister for Finance and the Government generally that this matter is being kept under constant review. Many Deputies, including Deputy McCarthy's colleague, Deputy Costello, have rightly put on the record of this House the necessity to have greater parliamentary engagement or scrutiny of the operation of NAMA. The chairman of NAMA and other officials from that body have been before the relevant committees of this House. The Government will consider any proposal which would make that process of scrutiny more comprehensive. We can work on that within the terms of the existing legislation or outside those terms. The Government intends to examine this matter again to determine whether greater parliamentary scrutiny is possible. Such engagement is needed to ensure people understand the reasons this is happening. In this case, it is the lesser of two evils. The view is that it is cheaper in the long run to use these people as part of the system and pay them for this purpose. I am sure the Deputy is aware that if there is some movement in the property market, the taxpayer will make some returns on these assets. We are open to considering the possibility of greater parliamentary scrutiny of the task and operation of NAMA. If Deputy McCarthy or any other Deputy would like to put concrete proposals to the Government, they will be entertained and their proposals examined in the most constructive way possible.

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