Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I welcome that NAMA funds might be invested back into the economy to create employment and hopefully growth, which seems entirely sensible. I agree completely with the Minister's earlier comments. However, in what should it invest? Are the investment and employment sustainable? What are the long-term impacts of investing in particular areas? Is the Minister not concerned that NAMA's focus seems to be essentially on trying to refloat the property market, which was precisely what got us into trouble? While, of course, we need housing, I am concerned that the whole thing seems to be predicated on keeping as much as is possible the private developers, who helped us get into this mess, in business by paying them. They will often own the assets at the end of the process rather than us owning them and also the rental revenue coming back to us on a long-term basis, which would also be a way for us to control the property market in future and prevent the sort of speculative bubble market in property which caused the crisis in the first place. Should we not have more direct control by owning the assets that will generate revenue and wealth for the economy in the future?

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