Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on this important legislation.

When the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, was travelling the length and breadth of the United States in the summer and autumn of 1992 seeking election to the presidency, he coined the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid". He was referring to the fact that among all the issues affecting the people of the United States, the core concern was the state of the economy. As we in this House debate the political events of the day, at the very core of our thinking should be the issue of jobs, and our phrase should be, "It's jobs, stupid". Whether it is NAMA, public sector reform or budgetary policy, we must ask ourselves if the passage of particular legislation will be good for job creation or whether it may be improved. The issue of job creation is key to this legislation and concerns me because the Minister's commitments and desires for a response from the banking system do not appear to go far enough. The economy, as we know, is broken.

If the economy were a big jigsaw puzzle, the NAMA legislation would be a major part of it and would need to be put in place in a constructive and effective fashion. It is difficult to know how long the NAMA project will take to come to fruition. It is in all our interests that it should, but it is fair to say that judgment day as regards how it is working will not take five or ten years. Judgment day will occur in the next 12 to 18 months maximum, when we can clearly see whether credit is flowing to small businesses. That is what is urgently required, to get people back to work and keep them working in small enterprises. Bank credit is at the core of our problem, with credit facilities being made available and banks being open for business at the centre of the solution process.

I have never seen the NAMA project as being about bailing out developers or particular bankers. I have seen it as being about trying to fix the banking problem. Our banks have broken down, there have been shocking misjudgments and erroneous policies among banking people, but we are where we are. This is our new starting point and we must try to aim for legislation and a banking methodology that not only work but put people back to work. It is ironic that we are commencing this debate in the Seanad on the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the end of state socialism in eastern Europe. That form of government after an experiment lasting 30 or 40 years crumbled and fell, and the beginning of the end came about 20 years ago. We in this country are dealing with the fallout from the failure of unregulated market forces, with markets and financial experts and economists literally going out of control and making very bad decisions which the taxpayer now has to address.

That is our starting point today, and the Bill, which has had such a significant airing in the other House, is being presented as the Minister's solution. As my colleagues have said, other valuable options have been put forward by people such as Deputy Richard Bruton of Fine Gael, with the "good bank, bad bank" strategy. However, I am a political realist. I know what the vote was in the other House and I expect I can say what the vote will be in the Seanad at the end of this process. The NAMA legislation is what we are left with, and that is what will be enacted. Our obligation here is to try and ensure it works well, but most importantly, that it works to restore confidence and credit, ensuring that small enterprises have the funds to get out of their current difficulties.

Members of the public tend to highlight two or three main topics, which should be reflected on by those engaging in the debate. They are concerned about how secretive some of the NAMA provisions may be. Many of the decisions will be made behind very closed doors and that, too, is somewhat ironic because it was precisely this type of decision making which caused many of the problems we have. In the legislation, some of the centrally important decisions in relation to valuations and future planning will be very secretive and that is why it is important the Oireachtas should have a role to play, not just in passing the legislation but in putting in place mechanisms by way of appropriate committees so every word and work of NAMA is open to the political scrutiny of Members on behalf of the people.

Our constituents, friends and neighbours are obviously very worried about the valuation process. This has been mentioned by virtually every speaker in both Houses. Why are we paying what appears to be an over the top rate for assets which have really shrunk in value? We could have a philosophical debate about long-term values and how growth is expected, but it appears to me as a layman that the Irish taxpayer, who is becoming "Mr. and Ms Bailout" for the financial interests, is being obliged to pay premium rates for these assets. The Minister has given his interpretation as regards why this is happening, but people are genuinely concerned that we are paying over the odds and making a bad situation worse. I realise we shall be dealing with this in much greater detail on Committee Stage, but it is one of the central areas of concern as far as the public is concerned.

Going back to my initial point, the other serious matter of concern is whether, from the viewpoint of getting credit flowing, the legislation will work. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, took nearly two pages of his script to deal with this. He introduced an amendment to provide guidelines to improve the flow of credit to SMEs, and if necessary, to other sectors. Guidelines are very aspirational, but small business is in a desperate position at present. I am not really sure that guidelines on their own can dig them out of the hole they find themselves in as a result of the lack of credit. We need to go beyond strong statements from the Minister. We need strong action and legislative demands on the financial institutions to respond to what has been granted to them, by again making credit available for small businesses. If that does not happen within the next few weeks and months, this legislation will be quite irrelevant because of the flow of jobs out of the country, loss of tax revenue and the disappearance of hope. The result will be such economic and political pressures that rather than the four-letter word, "NAMA" being at the centre of the debate, it will be the three-letter word, "IMF".

If we want to keep control of our destiny, politically and financially, job creation and jobs must be at the core of everything we do and every issue we respond to, regardless of whether it is the financial crisis, public sector reform, the budgetary crisis or the marches on the street. I am worried that from a jobs perspective we are not putting in place the guarantees to ensure the banks and financial institutions will respond to small business. I hope that on Committee Stage the Minister of State and his colleagues will be willing to respond favourably to the Opposition amendments on this core issue which is central to the legislation.

I am the first to concede that we need banks and bankers although those words may not be popular. Without them we would not have an economy and without that we will not have jobs. The jigsaw is broken and the pieces need to be put together again. A banking system is at the core of the economic equation which we must solve. We must be concerned about the pressures we can apply to the banking system from the perspective of jobs and small enterprises. We have one chance in this legislation over the next two or three days here and one day in the Dáil to get it right. Aspiration and guidelines are not sufficient. There are many excellent proposals in the Bill. The Government could have followed other routes. Fine Gael offered a viable alternative but we appear to be left with this. We must try to get it right for the sake of jobs.

I have not had a chance to mention the special purpose vehicle which has now become a master special purpose vehicle but I understand its financial parameters and that it will be off the Government loan projections. Its introduction on Report Stage last week made it seem like an afterthought. While there was a need for the European Commission to approve it, introducing major changes in that way does not do much to instil the public confidence we need.

We discussed the NAMA business plan in the House a fortnight ago when I argued that most people have some passing knowledge of NAMA, much of it negative. It is up to the Minister of State and his side of the House to try to change those public perceptions, concerns and fears and to respond to positive amendments. When the process is finished in two or three weeks' time and definitive plans are put in place, it would be helpful if the Minister for Finance were to write to every household in the country to outline clearly the concept behind his proposal, what it will cost, what he expects to stem from it and to give people some degree of optimism. This would transmit hope to the people and illustrate that the Government has a plan. I urge the Minister of State not to ignore the fact that without a jobs plan as part of this debate, we face a bleak future.