Did the Government Mislead us Over NAMA?

As we approach the end of this Oireachtas term, it is important to reflect on one of the most important decisions made in the House, reluctantly, when the NAMA legislation was passed. 

I refer to a statement by a former director of Anlo Irish Bank, Mr. Frank Daly, now chairman of NAMA, that the banks had misled NAMA.  Media comment, in particular, has adopted this line uncritically.  It is a national pastime to bash the banks, but we have to look at the issue more closely.

The establishment of NAMA was announced in the supplementary Budget Statement in April last year.  The draft business plan, according to which we were to make a phenomenal €4.8 billion in profit, was published on 13 October.  Having nationalised Anglo Irish Bank in December 2009 and appointed public interest directors to all of the banks, there was adequate time for the Government to find out the true story.  It is an abdication of responsibility to suggest it all comes down to the information the Government received from the banks.  NAMA and the Government have a multitude of advisers to check these matters for them.

Did the Government not present, intentionally, a rosy and misleading picture on the profitability of NAMA in order to get the legislation over the line?  It either did engage in a due diligence process on the banks - it had the capacity to do so - and hid the figures from us, or it did not, which would amount to a dereliction of duty.  That is what is unpatriotic about the Government - it misled the Houses Of The Oireachtas and the public on one of the most enormous financial undertakings ever made by the State. 

Nothing to Fear in EU Budget Peer-Review Proposal

We cannot expect bailouts from Brussels of the scale that has just happened - €750 billion in the last week - without playing our part in co-operating in the co-ordination of budgetary policy. 

Continue reading Nothing to Fear in EU Budget Peer-Review Proposal…

Urgent need for debate on NAMA and the Banks

Yesterday in the Seanad I asked why we are being given the runaround with regard to a debate on the banks and NAMA. The only logical explanation is that the Government is at sea on the banks and totally confused with results such as those posted by AIB yesterday.

The implications for the Government of the corrections to the NAMA scheme in the final approval being given by the Commission may not yet have been fully assessed.

At the same time, I do not consider it acceptable because last year the Leader promised that we would be regularly updated on NAMA. For two weeks in succession, he has promised the House a debate on the banks and NAMA.

We are a year and a half into the banking crisis, credit is still not flowing, no one is responsible for what has happened and no one has been held responsible. It can be seen in the AIB results that between bond buybacks, the selling of assets, the transferring of toxic loans to NAMA, the rights issue and the divesting of assets, that it will be another 18 months before all of this is done and dusted and credit flows.

It would be very useful to have a debate on the banks as well as some clarity on the part of the Government as to where we go from here.

EU Green Light Not a Ringing Endorsement of NAMA

The conditions applied to NAMA, as called for by Fine Gael, are welcome. The European Commission must now ensure these conditions are rigorously adhered to.

Continue reading EU Green Light Not a Ringing Endorsement of NAMA…

Excluding performing loans and Anglo Irish Bank could reduce NAMA by up to €30 billion

New FG submission to EU Commission on NAMA

Continue reading Excluding performing loans and Anglo Irish Bank could reduce NAMA by up to €30 billion…