MEMBERS OF the Green Party have complained that the outcome of a special convention on the proposed National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in Athlone, Co Westmeath, at the weekend was incorrectly presented by the party leadership.
Elsewhere, Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said that Nama could involve “colossal cost” to the taxpayer with “questionable effectiveness”.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan addresses the Dáil today, where he will announce the overall estimated discount to be placed on loans bought by Nama. Government sources indicated it could take until the end of October for the Bill to become law.
The second stage of the Bill is to be taken this week and next. The Dáil is then likely to be suspended for the week of the Lisbon referendum. The following week, if the second stage is completed, the committee stage of the Bill will be taken at the Finance and Public Services Committee. This is likely to take two or three weeks.
Once the Bill has passed all stages in the Dáil, it will go to the Seanad. Since it is a finance Bill, any Seanad amendments will have to come back to the Dáil for further approval.
Meanwhile, documentation from the Green Party convention in Athlone confirms that the two most popular choices in a “preferendum” on Nama excluded any additional payment for loans beyond their current market value.
Activists at Saturday’s meeting disputed party leader John Gormley’s claim on Monday that “what 80 per cent of the party wants is a version of Nama where we can have a social dividend”.
Green member Pat Fitzpatrick from Athenry, Co Galway said: “The fact that the two best-supported options were both against paying anything other than market value for the loans, and that these options got nearly 50 per cent of the preferendum support, is the highlight of the convention.
“Nama without paying over the odds for the loans is not Nama. Should this occur it’s the end of Nama,” he said.
Gary Fitzgerald, Dublin, who proposed the Swedish solution, which is also based on current market value, said: “The social dividend point was not mentioned or, if it was, it was mentioned in passing as one of numerous points. It certainly was not the dominant view of the meeting.”
Mr Fitzgerald said members were “furious” at the “spin” being put on the meeting. “What was the point in gathering to form a view of the members’ concerns if the leadership was then going to distort that view to the media and Fianna Fáil?
“We were told that the view of the meeting would inform further negotiations with Fianna Fáil. So, will the parliamentary party now push for an honest assessment of market value and deal with the consequences of that for each bank, or persist with ‘greenwashing’ a Nama proposal definitively rejected by the membership?”
Meanwhile, Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton has contrasted his party’s “tough love” approach to financial institutions with the Government’s stance, accusing Mr Lenihan of treating the taxpayer as a “soft touch”.
He said a growing number of independent commentators at home and abroad favoured an approach along the lines proposed by Fine Gael. The Nama plan was based on “the notion that the taxpayer should be brought like a lamb to the slaughter”.
