AFTER A 16-hour marathon sitting the Dáil early yesterday morning completed the committee-stage debate of the legislation to create the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan signalled his intention to introduce significant amendments when the Bill goes to report stage on Wednesday.
Some 250 amendments were considered during committee stage, which was passed at 5.36am. Fifteen TDs including the Minister and the finance committee chairman Michael Ahern were in the chamber at the conclusion of the debate: a total of eight Fianna Fáil, four Fine Gael and three Labour deputies. Alan Shatter (FG) noted that not a single Green Party TD had spoken during the committee-stage debate.
The House sat through the night to allow sufficient time to take the report stages of the legislation next week.
Mr Lenihan said he was “beginning to see a use for a Nama Oireachtas committee”, whether a sub-committee or otherwise, particularly in relation to the appointment of members to a valuation panel which would adjudicate on disputes referred to it by Nama.
The Minister acknowledged that the legislation put him in a “quasi-judicial” position and he said “I think confidence in this panel is very important. It is absolutely fundamental, and I have to say I would feel exposed as a Minister in this . . . making the most innocent appointments. You don’t know yourself the full implications of an appointment.”
He thought there was a case for having the matter included in the terms of reference of an Oireachtas committee. However, they wanted to “get on with moving the assets fast, so if you are going to protract that through the committee there is a difficulty”.
Mr Lenihan also confirmed his intention to take a shareholding in the Irish Nationwide and EBS building societies, although he did not respond when Labour Party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton suggested the investment in the two would total €1.5 billion.
He said he “could not speak with candour” on the issue before next week’s report-stage amendment, but offered the Opposition finance spokesmen and women a detailed briefing.
The Minister also defended his proposal to pay above the market value for impaired loans. He said the European Commission believed it was unavoidable. “In fact these sections [on valuing the loans] have been drafted on the basis of commission advice.”
The Minister stressed: “The commission accepts that this is not just appropriate but inevitable in the case of virtually every member state that adopts an asset-relief scheme. And yet you hear in the public debate that there is something unusual, that this Government is uniquely thick-headed about this.”
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said it was a “serious blunder of monumental proportions because it’s a €7,000 million own goal in my view”. Ms Burton said, however, “the Minister wants to overpay for the distressed assets because he could buy the distressed assets at market value which would be at least €7 billion below the price he proposes to pay.”
Pat Rabbitte (Labour) said “it seems to me that the European Central Bank and the commission are already dictating financial, fiscal and banking policy here and he [the Minister] is resting his entire case for this concept of long-term economic value on that fact”.