Sean Barrett (Independent)

I express my support for the Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, on the NAMA matter that has been raised by Senators Keane and Paul Coghlan. The last thing this country needs is for a State agency to start pumping up house prices, while suggesting there will be a few euro in it for the Department of Finance in the form of VAT receipts. That is what got us into this mess and one should note the statement of the Nobel prizewinner, Professor Stiglitz, that the Irish real estate frenzy increased the problems of moral hazard as developers raced to build and flip properties in the absence of adequate bank supervision. This leads me to a point raised at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, which is that NAMA is not supervised by the Central Bank. At a time when we are trying to get sense into a ridiculous property market, a State agency is trying to pump up the price again. I ask the Acting Leader to ask the Minister for Finance to include the activities of NAMA in the supervisory role of the Central Bank.

This Thursday night and Friday morning is the third anniversary of what happened on 29 and 30 September 2008, when the financial and property sectors combined to bring the country to its knees. NAMA has become a Frankenstein monster. It is formidable to the persons who created it, namely, the Parliament. It has to be brought back under control.

It is distressing that the same property developers, bankers, accountants, builders and lawyers are on its payroll while bankers come here to demand salaries of €690,000 a year, or 3.5 times what the Taoiseach earns. They have not realised the damage they have done to the country. The activities of NAMA have to be properly regulated and its abolition should be on the agenda.