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

The fundamental problem with NAMA is its mandate. Everything else flows from that. It is important, in demanding the necessary independent investigation of the sale of its assets, to note that there are a hell of a lot of questions to be answered about the large portfolios which have been sold off at a fraction of their par value and whether the public interest was protected. All of this can only happen because of the flawed mandate of NAMA, which the Government should have changed. Some of us on this side of the House called for it to be changed from the minute we entered here, saying it needed a much stronger social mandate. The social dividend aspect of NAMA was tacked on, as we all know, to assuage public concern about these matters. However, NAMA was told to get the money in as fast as it possibly could and that the Government did not care how it got it; hence, assets were flogged to vulture funds. That inevitably opens the door to possible corruption and dodgy dealing.

This is not about ideology. Wherever there is a sale of State assets or the handing out of State contracts to private interests, corruption exists. It happened in Italy with the Mafia and in Russia with the oligarchs. Corruption is an inevitable by-product of the process. I will give the Minister of State a more detailed answer on what I would do if I was Minister when we deal with the next amendment.

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