Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on her new appointment. I again express my disappointment that the Taoiseach does not feel we are worth listening to. Perhaps we need to give him more reason to show some respect.

The EU tends to view the refugee crisis as a defence and security issue. However, this is deeply destructive and separate from the real problem. As others have said, we are throwing money at despots to keep desperate people from leaving countries we have helped to destroy. Giving money to countries such as Egypt, Libya and other African states, as well as Afghanistan, to stem the flow of refugees is nothing short of immoral. I wish the Taoiseach would say so. The Turkey deal is just one of a number of disastrous deals. The amount of money we have given that country beggars belief, particularly in light of what is going on there. The European defence action plan, which includes proposals to use European Investment Bank funds to develop the arms industry - or so-called security research in Europe - was also discussed.

Despite the Stability and Growth Pact restrictions on public infrastructure spending in member states, it is planned to use a loophole which exempts increases in the European Investment Bank's capital from being governed by the pact. Therefore, while member states must abide by EU fiscal rules when it comes to housing, education and social security spending, the best lawyers in Europe are paid to figure out how we can divert more funds to arms research. What should we expect when the defence industry is probably the biggest and most powerful lobby in Europe?

Climate change was discussed, but not its impact on the refugee crisis. Along with the disastrous imperial wars of recent years, climate change is driving people to a situation where they must flee or die. According to United Nations estimates, nearly 20 million people are at risk due to famine or near-famine conditions in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen alone. More than 120 refugees, mainly Sudanese, died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast last weekend. These people are fleeing hunger, death, rape and other human rights atrocities being perpetrated by all sides in the conflict that has been raging since 2013. The US has been arming, training and funding the government army that recruits child soldiers and rapes, tortures and has carried out massacres of civilians. The EU is giving the same administration hundreds of millions of euro to stem the flow of refugees from the country. This money is nearly impossible to track and many human rights organisations fear is being funnelled into the military.

Instead of pouring arms into these countries, picking sides in battles where every player is in the wrong and exacerbating the breakdown of the structures needed to deal with climate disaster, we should be dramatically increasing humanitarian aid and engaging in research aimed at helping farmers and making it possible to sustain the lives of people in these countries, rather than, as at present, facilitating their being bombed.

On a different subject, I want to touch on the role of the European Union, and in particular the European Commission, during the establishment of NAMA. When NAMA was originally set up in late 2009, it was in clear breach of the EU state aid rules, under Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. However, as we know, the European Commission granted Ireland a special exemption to receive state aid due to the ongoing banking crisis, albeit with a number of conditions. The Commission stated that, with regard to the state aid exemption, it had received commitments from the Irish authorities at the time that the rights and exemptions contained in the NAMA Act would not lead to a distortion in the market in NAMA's favour. At this stage it now looks as though we have not held up to our end of the bargain. Under the reign of the previous Minister, Deputy Noonan, the Department of Finance allowed NAMA turn into an entirely different animal than it was originally intended to be, and in my opinion, in direct contravention of the NAMA Act. NAMA is now one of the largest developers in the State, with plans to build 20,000 houses by 2020. NAMA was set up to remove the bad loans and related assets of same from the balance sheets of the Irish banks and to manage them. It was not set up to develop expensive houses that the majority of Irish people could not afford. To my knowledge, there have been no amendments to the NAMA Act since 2009 yet it seems it can ride roughshod over its statutory obligations.

Another area where NAMA has ignored the provisions of its own Act is in relation to auditing. In the most recent financial statements, the chair of the NAMA audit committee, Brian McEnery, stated: "As the NAMA group entities are 51 per cent privately owned and operate to return dividends to shareholders, the companies were deemed to be trading for gain and the C&AG is not therefore in a position to audit the statutory financial statement of the NAMA group entities after 15 June 2015". That seems to be in direct breach of section 57(1) of the NAMA Act, which states: "NAMA and each NAMA group entity shall submit its accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit within 2 months after the end of the financial year to which they relate". It seems that the Comptroller and Auditor General is to be punished for exposing the truth about how NAMA operated on Project Eagle. Is the Government happy for NAMA to do that? If it is, that would beggar belief.

See this speech in context