Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I ask the Cathaoirleach bear with me. Yesterday we lost a fine servant of the Houses who resigned because of the expenses regime in place. I pay tribute to him for his work and applaud his integrity. To avoid confusion, I am referring to Mr. Tom O'Higgins, chairman of the audit committee, who resigned because he believed the Houses were not doing enough when it came to the transparency of expenses. He wrote to the Commission of the Houses of the Oireachtas about the matter but has been waiting months for a response. At this stage, we cannot afford to delay further. I must disagree with those Senators who claim the process is in train. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, must act now, as we must restore some credibility to the Houses.

I refer to last night's "Prime Time" programme on which a professor of economics at Columbia University, a Nobel prize winner in economics, was interviewed by RTE. I will not name the gentleman in question. He was concerned that NAMA was a criminal issue because taxpayers were being robbed. He suggested that if the Minister did not like the phrase "temporary nationalisation", he could use another term, namely, "pre-privatisation". Would that suit the Minister? Clearly, another expert has come out against NAMA and told us that we are taking the wrong approach. The Government needs to listen and we should debate the issue.