Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Sinn Féin has argued we should use NAMA's cash resources to stimulate the economy so I welcome today's announcement. I have not seen clarification on this matter in the NAMA statement. Will the €2 billion to be invested in coming years all be spent in Ireland? Of the €1 billion that has already been invested, more than half of it has been spent in Britain. Given that NAMA has €5 billion in cash assets for bonds that are not redeemable until 2020, will the Minister consider issuing a direction order for NAMA to invest in other projects on which it could get a return? For example on State projects it could get a return of 1.5% to 2% and not only on assets it has.

I am concerned about NAMA's bonus scheme for developers. As soon as it gets back the amount for which it bought the loans from Anglo Irish Bank or other banks, developers can keep a little bit extra. We need to ensure that this injection of €2 billion does not allow developers, who have left bad loans with Anglo Irish Bank, AIB or Bank of Ireland for which the Irish taxpayer has picked up the tab, to benefit from this.

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