Seanad debates

Monday, 9 November 2009

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage

 

3:00 pm

Photo of Larry ButlerLarry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I congratulate some of the speakers on the good quality of debate that has centred around the NAMA issue. I can only speak from my experiences of the past 35 years in running and being involved in businesses and the one lesson I learned in that period is that one cannot run a business without a credit system, and the banks are the only credit we have in this country. We have now produced new legislation in this House to ensure our banking system will start working properly again in the interests of the economy and ensuring the mistakes they made, along with many other countries throughout the world, are not repeated. Many mistakes were made in the banking system and legislation is important in terms of trying to right the systems that went wrong.

We currently have a banking system that does not have sufficient money to lend into the economy to ensure our small, medium and even multinational businesses are performing. This is an opportunity for the Government and the country to ensure the banks are fully capitalised with a €54 billion injection. It also gives the banks greater freedom to become an important player in the economy again by lending to the people who are productive in the economy. In examining this legislation it would be wrong to believe we will ever see credit being made available to the same extent it was in the past. We do not want to see that. We must ensure that does not happen because that is what got us in the trouble we are in. That is the reason we must bring in this important legislation to deal with that.

I have heard many criticisms of NAMA but I did not hear one solution-----

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