Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I said in my earlier contribution that we cannot go down that road again. I congratulate Senator Twomey on his earlier contribution which was very constructive. That is what I would like to hear in this debate. How can we make this legislation better? That is what this House is about. It is about ensuring that when legislation comes to this House we have an opportunity to highlight our experiences in terms of how we can contribute to that legislation.

In terms of questions I would ask, we will have many investors coming into this country and they will be looking to buy up property from NAMA. This is where we must ensure safeguards. It is fine for investors to come in and buy up property but from where will they source their labour content? This is where the special purchase vehicle comes into play because if we were to use the European context, labour from any part of Europe could be used. I am not against that but we should be able to employ our own labour. We have 400,000 people unemployed and this is where the special purpose vehicle comes in and which EUROSTAT has approved. It privatises the debt, although it is not a debt as such, as we all know, because there is capacity to repay that debt. It is not on our books as such but it is a private vehicle. I ask the Minister to ensure this vehicle can work equally as well for us when it comes to people buying development property in this country from NAMA. That is an important point. We should see if that vehicle works for us and, if not, we should set up another vehicle that will ensure this is the case.

A year and a half ago a major problem arose with the banking system in that our banks were about to fall. The banks must be mindful that the people and the Government came to their rescue. The banking fraternity should not be allowed forget this.

Many asked where we will facilitate the mortgage holders who might get into trouble at a later stage. This is not the vehicle to deal with mortgage problems and separate legislation should be brought in to deal with those. That said, I suggest that the banks should be allowed take equity in such property. Those who cannot meet their mortgage commitments should be allowed to rent for a period from the bank. That way there would not be empty houses throughout the country. It is also important that one could defer payment for six to 12 months and make interest-only payments.

There are many ways we could legislate to ensure the banks have a social conscience for what the people and the Government have done for them. The approach should ensure there is no reason for a second NAMA which could be catastrophic in that there could be 35,000 unable to meet their mortgage commitments if interest rates rose substantially. We must legislate for that.

We also will be able to look at how well NAMA works as a vehicle. The banks will then be in a position to ensure normal business continues. If there is an upturn in the world economy, it is important our banking system is ready to take the opportunities which it, rightly, should be in a position to take.

I regret that this legislation was not further advanced three to four months ago. I would like to have seen that, but it is complex legislation and a deal of work has gone into it. The Minister played a major role in ensuring this legislation with us today. Do not forget that the critics, the economists and members of different parties fought him tooth and nail. He even had to turn around and say to the economists that he would meet them, and none of them turned up. On the Pat Kenny show, the Minister put it to them either to put up or shut up. The Minister has been outstanding in ensuring this legislation is with us today. That is why it took so long.

This has been a broad debate, which is good. While we all applaud long debates, they take their toll on the business sector. The business sector can do things overnight. This is the different between the private and public sectors. It takes so long if one wants to reduce the workforce in the public sector, as against the private sector where it is done overnight.