THE CONCEPT of long-term economic value in the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) process was “ridiculous” and “absurd” and should be abolished, Fine Gael’s communications and energy spokesman Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking to the MacGill Summer School, Mr Varadkar said: “We are stuck with Nama, but there are certain things we can do to minimise the cost of the bank bailout to the taxpayer, restore public lines and improve credit lines to business.”
“To begin with, we can still amend the Nama process to remove the absurd concept of long-term economic value. Only one-quarter of the loans that will be transferred to Nama have been transferred. The remainder should be bought at their market value and for nothing more.
“Alongside this, the Government should publish the entirety of the Bacon report which proposed the establishment of Nama and all of the independent and other advice that they received at the time. We have a right to know what other options were considered and why they were rejected.
“We also need to ensure that the banking inquiry will look into the behaviour of the banks in the weeks after the guarantee was introduced,” Mr Varadkar said, according to an advance script.
