Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am also disappointed because I am a member of the Business Committee and we agreed with party leaders that we would have a motion setting up a commission of investigation. We agreed a change in the time for this, from tomorrow to today, to facilitate the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan. He was here today and I know he is busy but the Rural Independent Group has provided pairs on his behalf. This is new politics but it will have to change if we do not get fair play and equality of esteem. Commitments were given around the need to establish a commission of investigation into NAMA's involvement in Project Eagle and this is not acceptable. Deputy Wallace has raised this on countless occasions over the past two or three years. He is elected by the people to do so and he knows a bit about the industry. All parties and groups agreed to this but this morning the Minister, Deputy Noonan, said we needed to wait further.

I have a grandchild aged three years who is learning that an orange light means "slow" while red lights mean "stop" but there are no green lights. The lights are turned off, as is the tap, and there is a huge blockage. A three year old can see that something is not right in the State of Ireland when we need to wait for the Committee of Public Accounts to finalise its report before we can investigate. I was pleased by the court decision relating to the Committee of Public Accounts earlier this week. It is a good thing for parliamentarians and for democracy, even though it is a Tipperary woman who took the challenge. I am pleased that the court upheld the rights of our committees and the Oireachtas, whose Members are elected by the people. We are public servants, Teachtaí Dála, and we have a duty to serve the people but Governments are not serving the people and a lot of people have not been serving the people since NAMA was set up. We cannot wait for the Committee of Public Accounts because it could take forever. NAMA has been before the Committee of Public Accounts on eight or nine occasions in the past couple of years and has failed to answer the questions put to them by the Deputies on behalf of constituents, the people whom they were elected to represent.

The powers of this Parliament exist under inquiries legislation and they are necessary. As a legislature, we are here to enact more powers if we do not have sufficient powers and there are blockages in the courts. The US is a long way from here but President Trump has been elected by the people and he is enacting legislation under his powers. He promised he would do this when he was standing for election. We make promises to get elected but, as former Deputy Pat Rabbitte once said, those promises were only made during election time. People are sick of that and will not put up with it any longer. It is not fair, honest or just.

The commission of investigation was promised and was agreed by the Whips and party leaders. What is the problem? Why are the orange lights turned on, and the go slow signs put up? What are we hiding? Who are we covering up for and what is the delay? We cannot kick this can down the road and I will not allow it to be kicked down the road. I will raise it as long as I am in this House. The statements by Transparency Ireland on the perception of corruption in Ireland sadden me. There are changes in parliaments all over the world because the people have awakened as a result of social media. They are educated and know when they are being mistreated and codded. The Competition Authority, which has existed for decades, is unable, unwilling and under-resourced to deal with issues of big deals, sweetheart deals and deals that went wrong involving major multinationals buying up companies just to close them and sell them. The Competition Authority is toothless and meaningless and has no function. The resources are not there for posts at sergeant level in the Garda or for other officials but we need to put the resources there. We have the resources for everything except getting the truth. It seems we do not want to find the truth.

There are many issues and yesterday we debated a motion on Bus Éireann and the savage crisis there. It is a vital public service for parts of rural Ireland. We heard about carers last week and about disability cuts, as well as cuts in the roads budget and the Rural Independent Group will introduce a motion this evening to address the lack of funding and investment in rural roads. Of all roads in the country, 94% are non-national roads and they have 54% of the traffic but there has been underinvestment in these for decades. We see all this money given over for sweet deals, however, and it beggars belief. It would not happen in the Congo or places where they have no democracy but only dictatorship.

I have just left the housing committee and we dealt with empty properties and commercial property in NAMA that cannot be touched. NAMA offered moneys and some 7,000 or 8,000 properties to local authorities but they could only take two. They were offered to Tipperary but we only took a small number. We tried to find out why from the housing sector, the county manager, the housing agency and NAMA but I am dizzy and frustrated as it is impossible to get a straight answer. These bodies have title and ownership and can give them over. If there is recent planning permission it should be possible to use them but they say they are not suitable under sustainable development. It is a game of pass the parcel and I had hoped this commission of investigation would be set up, with proper powers and headed by a retired judge with the power to call people in and to demand and get answers, leading to a report that would be brought to this House for debate. It was agreed to and must happen without any more dilly-dallying or ducking and diving. We need a commission of investigation, as agreed by the party Whips of the Business Committee, of which I am a member.

We talk about new politics and there was a request related to the pay of Ministers this week but the tap can be turned off. The Minister should bring that back to the Whip, to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and to the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach is paired with one of our Members this week and we are willing to play ball but we have to have a modicum of respect and when we agree something at party leader level at the new Business Committee, only for it to be turned on its face as it was this morning, it will not be accepted by our group as regards rural projects.

Deputy Wallace referred to the Project Eagle report, which came to me on the same day as Deputy Wallace received it. I was worried about it. It was too big a project and I did not understand it but I commend him on taking it up. The party sitting beside me had it for a lot longer but they would not deal with it. We need people to bring up these issues because it is taxpayers' money - the sweat and blood of our people who work and strive to raise their families despite the cuts they have to endure. There is a project in Clonmel which I refer to as "Project Jackdaw" but it could be described as "Project Gobdaw". I wrote to NAMA twice and got no reply until the person who had told me became angry and threatened to go to someone else, such as Deputy Mick Wallace, and I wrote again giving them four hours to come back to me, which they did. They thought I was talking about another hotel project from two or three years ago.

This was a gaping eyesore. The Clonmel Arms Hotel had been a wonderful place but what went on there was disgusting and despicable. The commission needs to investigate that too. In fairness to NAMA, they responded and were willing to take up the personal whistleblower, but they declined, so I could not do any more. I pressed the matter with the Garda Síochána in case I would be told that I had not dealt with it.

It is a shameful situation that is going on with big auctioneering houses in this city and big business people who want to get rich quick and have done so. Bags of cash are being carried around to people and brought in to buy people elsewhere. It is disgusting. In fairness to NAMA, however, in that case they acted and were prepared and willing to act. How many other cases are there that I and other TDs do not know about? Other people may know about them and it is going on. It is murky, dirty, nasty and has no place in a modern, democratic country. We will be having tribunals into what is going on here in NAMA in decades to come. As sure as I am standing here that will happen as it did with other matters, including the beef industry.

In spite of the wasted tribunal the whole thing is a cartel. If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck, surely it is a duck. We all know it is a cartel, yet in this Parliament we are toothless, meaningless and totally irrelevant because we will not deal with it. We made some effort but the Government rowed back on it this morning. That will not be allowed to happen, it cannot and must not happen.

We have to get to the bottom of this because there are too many people suffering and there is too much hardship out there. I did not mention what happened in the courts as a result of whole estates going into NAMA. In my village I know of a young developer who was mad to get rich quick, but he ended up losing most of it and went to Poland. He arrived back last Friday and told people in my village that he had bought it all back from NAMA. First of all, he paid a massive amount for it where I live in Tipperary, which was madness. He wanted to build hundreds of houses which would have ruined the village, so we held it up for years. Thankfully, the good people objected, although I was not one of the objectors. It is madness to put 200 houses into a village of 80 houses, but the banks were willing to throw money at him. He went to Poland and now he is back and tells us that he has bought the property back again. I did not see any public auction or notice anywhere. I did not see any transparency. I have written to NAMA and they responded, but the response is disappointing. They said they divested their interest in it in 2015, but to whom, where or what? There was a list of receivers but we do not know who owns it now. He says he owns it and he probably does, but where is the responsibility or accountability?

I have had people in who are being tortured every day of the week by bankers and vulture funds. They took out loans in good faith with an institution, yet they were sold on for between 10% and 25% in some places. These vultures are no better than the grey crows that attack little lambs when they are being born. The Minister of State, Deputy Andrew Doyle, would understand that. Vultures are disgusting creatures which are trying to gain massively. Then they are getting a court system with backing orders.

The previous Government brought in the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2013. I called it an eviction Act, which it is. I am a member of the Land League and will stand ready to fight for people's homes. Now, however, I see that vulture funds will attack family farms. Farmers should not have any special protection but land is an emotive issue. Ordinary people living on the land in small-holdings will have the support of communities. This is not over yet.

County registrars are ready, willing and able to hear such cases, but who appointed these registrars and who gave them those powers under what Act? Who appointed the judges to sit in adjudication of families, terrorising them and treating them like that? Remarks have been sent on to me about what happened in a court in Nenagh last week. I have not verified them and I will not say any more, but if they were said they should not have been said by anybody next or near the Bench, not to mind those sitting on the Bench. I have no accuracy as to what was said, but it would not surprise me. That attitude has to change. We have to start serving the public. We are Teachtaí Dála, public servants, and we must stand up to what has happened. We bailed out the banks and what did we get back? A kick in the teeth and two fingers. They are laughing at us every day of the week. They want to sell off because profit is their guiding light, nothing else. Therefore, this commission of investigation must start now. It must have teeth, powers and resources. It must be able to compel people to appear before it. They will have a damn hard job, however, because there is a lot of digging to be done.

What I said about my village is going on in every community in rural Ireland. Anywhere they thought there were rich pickings, the banks shovelled money into them. Auctioneers also had a role to play, yet now they are all inside working for NAMA and receivers. The whole murky business is a mushroom industry. It is mushrooming all the time and they are making vast profits from it, and to hell with people and their families. "To hell or to Connacht" was the saying with Cromwell, but he is back worse than ever with the vulture funds. We appointed them and allowed them to operate, so shame on us. This Government and previous ones allowed them, but Cromwell was never as bad. He left a good bit of land in Tipperary to the forebears of a colleague of mine, the former Minister of State, Martin Mansergh, who acknowledged it himself. Cromwell was not as bad as that. We kept him out of Clonmel, but we cannot get the vultures out. We have no protection in the courts. Something must be done about this because it is outrageous and disgusting. We must have a commission of investigation right now to do its job as quickly as possible with the necessary resources. We will come back to debate the matter in this Dail.

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