Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, for tabling the motion calling for a commission of investigation into the sale of Project Eagle. Simply put, allegations have been made in this House and Deputies need to provide a mechanism by which they can be upheld or otherwise. The National Asset Management Agency must be above reproach. Procrastination on the part of the Government allows these allegations to be made repeatedly without being refuted.

The amount of money involved in Project Eagle is stark. Assets once valued at €5.7 billion were sold for €1.6 billion. The difference between these two figures equates to the amount the Government has allocated to housing for the next four to five years. That indicates the scale of the project. The money purportedly provided to address the housing crisis for the next four years will only tackle 30% of the housing lists. This morning, I received information from my local authority that the provision of 2,338 units, as envisaged over the next four to five years, will only address 30% of the housing list.

We were informed when the Government took office that the State would receive a dividend from NAMA, yet we have not seen any such dividend. In the recent budget, the Government informed us that NAMA would build 20,000 new houses. We were informed four or five years ago that the agency would provide 6,000 housing units, yet it has only provided 1,000 of them thus far. It is against the background of such promises and the current housing crisis that my constituents learned of the allegations concerning Project Eagle. It is in this context that the Government, in its recent budget, placed all of its trust and faith in NAMA to solve the housing crisis.

While those allegations remain in the ether, there is no way to believe that NAMA is above reproach. I hope it is and expect it will be found to be so, but it is incumbent on the Minister to ensure that is the case and that there is no ambiguity whatsoever.

I am also conscious of the fact that there exists another project in the hands of NAMA, Project Arrow, which is currently the subject of negotiations in relation to its proposed sale. The assets have a face value of €6.3 billion, and 50% of them are residential units. It is alleged that the portfolio may be sold for less than €1 billion, which amounts to less than €100,000 per unit. Offaly's local authority and many others have been given funding to provide units to meet the demand for housing from the waiting lists in their areas. They will be paying well in excess of that for residential units and distorting the market into the bargain. I cannot understand how the Minister for Finance can sit idly by when the prospect of that sort of write-down is imminent, in addition to what we have had previously in terms of what is before us in this motion. I heard the Minister speak yesterday about his negotiations with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, with regard to proposals for the short-term situation. We will see how that lands. How is it landing in people's minds that there is an imminent sale for less than €1 billion of €6.3 billion worth of assets, 50% of which are residential, when that could allow the State to have units available to house people on housing lists in this and every other city and county local authority area for less than €100,000 per unit? It is disappointing that this has been left on the long finger and that there is no effort to use those assets to meet the demand that is there.

We are told that there is a surplus of up to €2 billion - a dividend - owing to the State in the forthcoming years in relation to NAMA's activities. We are led to believe there will be a dividend for the State. There is no dividend for my constituents on the housing list. There is no dividend for homeless people throughout the country. There is no dividend for many people who say to us that the Government will not treat the issue as seriously as it should be treated to address the situation. Here is an option. There is an alternative solution staring the Government in the face, but it does not want to know about it. The Minister would rather wait to see how his negotiations with Deputy Alan Kelly land.

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