Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am aghast at what I have learned about amendment No. 36 from the Minister. I am aware from being in business that if I submitted a set of accounts at the end of a financial year that contained these types of phoney figures, I would be brought before the courts by the Revenue Commissioners. It is just funny money. It is crazy. If it was Hallowe'en rather than Christmas, I would say it was a magician at work. Last week, we were arguing about the number of houses, which was underestimated by 350,000. Tonight, the Minister is seeking to transfer all of the assets, as was signed into law. I tabled two parliamentary questions to find out when it was signed into law. It was signed on 25 December, Lá Nollag, last year, so there are no ifs or buts. I have asked hundreds of times why there was such a panic that it was signed on that day, when the country rests except for the emergency services.

We are now told that no financial loans will transfer. I would love to be a business man who gets a deal such as this, where one gets the assets but no loans. In addition, €460 million of the Housing Finance Agency loans will be paid by somebody else. The somebody else is the taxpayers, the people who will pay for the water and all the other taxes. Nobody else will pay. There are no sugar daddies around who will be generous and cough up money. I have serious issues about this €460 million. There is no explanation of where it will come from. Has it already been paid? It probably has been. How will we keep it off the balance sheet? There is not an accountant or auditor in the country who would sign off on this set of accounts. One could not find one who would. A first year student accountant would not do it. In addition, nobody would go near the tax office with them because one would be run out of town. The tax office would bring the house of cards down. One would not be in business for long because the Revenue Commissioners would close it down, and rightly so. One just would not get away with it.

I am also concerned about the huge amount of design, build and operate projects. Unlike Deputy Stanley, I supported that as a county councillor.

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