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Accountability to the Oireachtas will mean zero oversight and enforcement

IF YOU’RE not already worried about the National Asset Management Agency, may I offer you a single sentence from its architect and chief defender, Government economic adviser Alan Ahearne. This is from his e-mail to the group of economists who wrote in The Irish Times last week expressing their profound concerns about the scheme (Opinion and Analysis, August 26th). One of those concerns was about the transparency and accountability of Nama. Here is Dr Ahearne’s rebuttal of this argument: “This is wrong. The draft legislation sets out that Nama will be accountable to the Oireachtas in the usual manner.”