Greens warned not to back Bill

KENNY CLAIM:FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has warned the Green Party against supporting the Nama legislation. He said it would send out a message that "in this Republic the people of influence and money continue to rule''.

Mr Kenny said the Greens had spent the last week telling anyone who would listen that it had affected major changes in the draft legislation.

“It did so with great enthusiasm and exuberance. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, claimed that the Government had agreed on ‘equal sharing of the risk between Nama and the banks’, in other words, 50/50.

“Yesterday, we saw what those fine words meant in practice. The value of the subordinated bonds, which will be offered to the banks under Nama’s risk-sharing mechanism, amounts to 5 per cent of the total price.”

Mr Kenny said the Greens had also claimed that there would be a social dividend.

“What it meant, of course, is that the State will vastly overpay for land which it may then make available to local communities.

“If the Green Party wants to make community pitches available, why can the Government not buy the land at market value now instead of paying over the price for land that could be transferred to communities?’’

Changes made to the draft legislation were cosmetic, said Mr Kenny.

“Why else would Fianna Fáil have let the Green Party take any credit? They were designed to get the Green Party through a shaky weekend in Athlone.’’

Mr Kenny said he wanted to remind the Green Ministers “that Nama is not about 140 Green members who turn up at a conference. It is about the 4.2 million people who live in this country.’’

During the past 12 years, he said, it had become clear that Fianna Fáil could not be trusted to make the right decisions. “Fianna Fáil is no longer the party of the ordinary people; it is the party of the establishment.

“It is easy to be brave when taking away €10 million for cervical cancer vaccination or medical cards from pensioners. However, when it comes to standing up against the elite and the vested interests it has caved in.

“This money is being sucked out of the system. It is not as if Nama were to tax child benefit or whatever else.

“The people will be on the streets when its impact hits home. It is the economics of the madhouse, supported by the fiction of long-term economic value,’’ said Mr Kenny.