Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

That was an absolutely extraordinary way to end a contribution on NAMA. Suddenly, it is all the Opposition's fault, a party that has not been in government for the past 17 years, for the setting up of the HSE and all its attendant waste.

What I do agree with Senator Hanafin on is that this is a historic debate and legislation. No matter how long one spends in politics, one asks the question, "When I am gone, will I have achieved anything?" The one certain matter in this debate is that after all Members have moved on and the Seanad has changed, or otherwise, NAMA will still be in existence. NAMA is a legacy to the way our country was run and mismanaged and to the chronic manner in which the economy was overheated and under-regulated between 2002 and 2007.

As I was getting ready for this debate, I recalled the last several lines of Shelley's "Ozymandias", which I studied for my intermediate certificate:

'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

NAMA is the colossal wreck that generations to come will have to live with, manage and guide the economy through. The Government spoke about building stadia and bowls to recognise its legacy. However, NAMA will be its legacy.

The Minister for Finance and Members opposite claim NAMA is the only game in town with no other option commended or established. That is not true. Many of the people cheering for the agency are the very people who will benefit from it when it is established. Those who claim this is the only way to manage the banking crisis are the same people who will be looking for the contracts and work that will be necessary to make this project work. It is essential that any debate on the agency, now and in the future, has an atmosphere of vigorous dissent and constructive criticism.

Earlier today the Minister claimed this is the main model with which to move forward. One writer very strong in her warning about what was going to unfold was Gillian Tett, assistant editor of the Lex column in the Financial Times. She stated:

...in most societies, elites try to maintain their power not simply by garnering wealth, but by dominating the mainstream ideologies, both in terms of what is said, and also what is not discussed. Social 'silences' serve to maintain power structures in ways that participants often barely understand, let alone plan.

We cannot allow this to happen in the construction of this vehicle. We must ensure it is not surrounded by silence but that it is contested because the stakes are simply far too high.

It is important that in this debate we focus on how to improve and change the legislation. There are five points that Fine Gael makes about the Bill. First, as Senator Hanafin touched upon, is the concept that there is no economic cycle at which the prices of the assets have not come from a trough back up to the peak at which they started. That is exactly what we must avoid. That is bubble economics which got this country into the current state.

The NAMA business plan is predicated on house prices going back up. Thankfully, they will not return to the prices they started at because no business plan could make such an assumption. However, it makes the assumption that house prices will rise by 10%. As I said on the Order of Business, the sole job of politicians in the years to come must be to make items cheap in our country. It will not be an easy job and may sound like a small one. We will be in an environment of falling wages and increased interest and tax rates. Our job will be to bring down vigorously the cost of living. I am philosophically opposed to any business plan based, as is NAMA's, on a return, no matter how small. We cannot have a survival plan for our country based on bubble economics, the basis of this legislation.

Section 129 states "a participating institution shall act in utmost good faith at all times in its dealings with the Minister and NAMA". How can we ensure good faith will be maintained and discharged? The answer lies in section 208, a provision that has not been touched on so far but may end up becoming one of the most potent parts of the legislation. It states the Minister may "direct a participating institution to draw up or amend, within a specified period, a restructuring plan for the purposes of this Act".

What is the future structure of the Irish banking sector? How many will be employed in it? How large will the banks be and in which sectors will they operate? In an earlier debate with the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Martin Mansergh, I said a legacy of this is that we can never have a bank again in Ireland that is too big to fail. I was laughed at for making this point. However, the Governor of the Bank of England, the European Commission and, God help me, the Tories are now saying it about their respective banking systems.