Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point I want to raise was well articulated by Senator Aideen Hayden. Yesterday, I listened to the debate on the IBRC loan book at the committee. It is appalling that we are approving a situation in which foreign private equity funds can target the purchase of the loans with no safeguards and we are depending on their goodwill in treating borrowers sympathetically. It is unacceptable for any Government to be in that position. The loan book will go to the funds who target returns on investment of 20% to 30%. Usually, this is in a high-risk area. I disagree fundamentally with the Minister for Finance, who claims it is not practical to make these loans saleable to the borrowers at the discounted rate. That is exactly what we should do. For people trying to hold onto their own houses, it is a given that it should happen.

I am concerned about foreign funds buying property at the bottom of the market. If the economy recovers over the coming decade, all of the money will be sent abroad and we will not have the indigenous investors and the capital required to reconstruct our economy. There is no thought, and deficiencies in the Department of Finance and at political level must be addressed.

I said at the time that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, politicised the Garda Commissioner by using politically sensitive information against Mick Wallace, who is a constituency colleague-----