Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I second Senator Fitzgerald's amendment to the Order of Business to include a discussion on NAMA. Last week, I spoke about Ministers lying and it is very serious that these Houses were misled on this €54 billion project by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance. It is summed up in the financial pages of The Irish Times today in the article headlined "Nowhere for Cowen to hide on IMF advice on Nama". The IMF raised the issue of getting credit flowing, which is the fundamental objective of NAMA and of the guidelines from the European Union on the treatment of toxic loans and impaired assets. The Government knew this but, as The Irish Times states, "kept on putting forward the argument. Both the Minister for Finance and Taoiseach are on record in this regard." The article also states that the Government has known since April of last year that there were serious doubts about this.

The Government killed debate on NAMA by suggesting it was the only game in town and no alternatives were provided. My party provided an alternative which was worthy of debate and consideration in light of the information we know now. However, the Taoiseach and the Minister did not just mislead these Houses on the IMF report, they misled the Houses on European Central Bank approval of NAMA, which was highly qualified on the pricing of assets and burden sharing. We were also misled on European Commission approval of NAMA, which was presented as a formality at all stages but we now know that at present the Commission is examining the notification of the NAMA scheme issued in December. Is there any sanction for the Taoiseach or the Minister for Finance for misleading the Houses or for any parliamentarian for misleading the Houses of the Oireachtas?