Results 10,181-10,200 of 26,902 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Between 5,000 and 6,000 units.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: But Mr. McDonagh cannot tell me what NAMA got back for them and what the original value was.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I will outline why I have asked for that information. First, one can look at the fact that property prices are now back almost to 2007-2008 levels or heading in that direction.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: They are climbing pretty fast in Dublin. I accept that that is the case in other parts of the country, and rents in some cases are back to what they were.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I question the rationale behind selling off all this residential property when its value is appreciating at its current rate. I wonder whether we got the best value for money. I wonder whether the vulture funds that have bought residential property from NAMA will be the beneficiaries. I wonder whether the sale will end up being a very bad deal for the public who paid for all of this stuff.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Is the following not obvious when one looks at how things are panning out? I acknowledge the point made by Mr. McDonagh at the beginning of his statement that previously it was not commercially viable to build and it is only just about becoming commercially viable to build now. I accept that this is a mandate that was set for NAMA, so in some ways it is not really NAMA's responsibility but...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Has Mr. McDonagh not admitted that NAMA has had to wait for the market to tell it that it is okay to build, even though there has been an objective need for the past number of years to provide housing?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I accept that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Can I ask Mr. McDonagh one question?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: NAMA had 15,000 residential units and it has sold 5,000. Does that mean it still has 10,000 units?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Can Mr. McDonagh add to that figure?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to gather some facts before Mr. McDonagh finishes his response. What about the development potential of residential land? What would that bring the figure up to?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Is that the total?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Those are useful facts. Mr. McDonagh said at the beginning of his statement that because of the collapse in prices, neither NAMA nor anybody else would consider building up until now. Was that his point? The market dictated it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, if what one is trying to do is to make a profit. If what one is trying to do is to provide housing, one might have a different approach.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not pointing the finger at NAMA. I understand the straitjacket that it is in, but I have always disagreed with that straitjacket.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: We are paying a disastrous price for it, given the failure to build housing for a number of years. I want to quiz Mr. McDonagh on another matter. It seems an obvious statement of fact that the mandate that has informed NAMA's activities has failed us, in that it has exacerbated the cycle.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am running out of time. I take Mr. Daly's point, but the idea that NAMA has tracked the market, which is its mandate, is crazy and we are paying the price for it. I must be honest and say that. On the delivery of social housing, out of the 70,000 - now 52,000 - existing or potential units, the total that we can expect for social housing from NAMA is 2,000. Is that not a pathetic return?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)
Richard Boyd Barrett: That is correct, and we did not get any social housing then either.