John Gilroy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister. While we would prefer not to have to do so in the first instance, the acquisition of €75 billion worth of loans for an outlay of €32 billion illustrates the scale of the collapse of the property sector and the enormous challenge the country faces. It represents a 57% reduction in their par value, as Senator Barrett said. We welcome the recent announcement of NAMA's €2 billion investment and the number of jobs that will generate. I note that NAMA's quarterly report as of December 2011 was published. While it contains much that is of a descriptive manner, it does not go very far in explaining the activities of NAMA, a point to which I return. Other reports, including Special Report 79 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the activities of NAMA, add something to the debate but the complexities of NAMA require more than an ordinary level of scrutiny.

Senator Daly's Bill attempts to bring some clarity to this area but, unfortunately there are some problems with it, particularly in regard to confidentiality as well as some obstacles of a contractual nature. In addition, we can see the Bill as placing a barrier to much of NAMA's commercial ability, particularly the prescriptive insistence on the publication of details which might place the working of NAMA's commercial activity in a disadvantageous position in regard to other actors in the property market. There is a serious flaw in the Bill. However, I can understand some of Senator Daly's concerns and I have heard some of them raised in other areas. In this regard, I thank the Senator for using his party's Private Members' time to bring this Bill before the House for debate. Unfortunately, Senator Daly previously made comments in the House about the operation of NAMA but has failed to provide any further information despite being invited to do so on numerous occasions.