The Opposition leaders have been accused of having bankrupt ideals and lacking moral fibre during the debate on the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in the Dáil today.
Fianna Fáil's Frank Fahey said the Government's approach to tackling the banking crisis was similar to that of Sweden during the early 1990s, and that Nama would get banks back to lending to the economy "by Christmas" and start to make a profit for the tax payer.
Mr Fahey said there had been "much misunderstanding and misrepresentation" of the application of the long term economic value to the present mark to market valuation of property.
"The cause of our problems in the property sector is that over the last six years, speculative forces drove market prices through the roof, and as a result they did not correspond to long term economic value. It was this totally irresponsible ignorance of the long term economic value caused by speculative gain in property prices which caused our problem. If people had been paying what corresponded to long term economic value then the bubble would have been avoided.
"By the same principle current property prices do not correspond to long term economic value. The speculative element now is that prices are going to continue in a downward spiral."
He accused Fine Gael, and newly-elected TD George Lee in particular, of advocating letting the banks struggle on for another year. "Does he not understand that the businesses and families around the country cannot wait for another year - we desperately need to get credit flowing now."
Fine Gael’s new “magic” wholesale bank will supposedly get €2 billion in capital from the State and will be able to borrow €40 billion from ECB. "This again is nonsense, since the ECB demands collateral," Mr Fahey said. "What a disappointment George Lee has turned out to be. The Fine Gael proposal has blown up in his face and the Irish public have seen through their proposal."
The Fianna Fáil TD said Labour’s negativity in the debate "has been even more misguided".
"Eamon Gilmore may have left the Workers Party behind but he took some of their policies with him to the Labour Party. Nationalising the banks, ending bank guarantees and giving the 'two fingers' to pensioners who have lost everything in the crash is more like his student radical days that the stuff of an aspiring statesman."
"I must say that the speeches of the leaders of the Opposition in this debate last week really reflected the bankruptcy of their ideals. The negativity of their contribution was breathtaking and it demonstrated an absence of moral fibre when it comes to the needs of the country."
Mr Fahey said that, by contrast, the Greens, "instead of wallowing in negativity" had made constructive proposals that improved the Nama proposals.
Speaking earlier, Minister of State for Trade and Commerce Billy Kelleher said there had been "misleading and unhelpful" commentary over the summer.
"We have to accept one particular premise . . . the lending that went on prior to the difficulties was, in a way, irresponsible, but it was based on a time of continued growth, access to cheap credit internationally, and the banks were using wholesale money markets to borrow credit on short term for long-term lending into the property market in Ireland, and that was fine until such time we had the international credit crisis," he said.
"I think it's a bit disingenuous for people to point out that all of this difficulty is as a direct result of government policies in recent years. The fact of the matter is that if we didn't have the international credit crisis, we would have a softer landing in the property market."
However, Brian Hayes of Fine Gael said the Government wanted people to forget the recent past. "The Taoiseach and his Ministers would have us believe that our economic problems were caused by foreigners. Not so. Not true. Our problems are very much homegrown."
"The economic crisis in Ireland was caused by the Galway Tent School of Economics. Central to this ideology was the belief that we could build a sustainable economic future on the back of an unsustainable property bubble. At the core of the Galway Tent was a cosy cartel of politicians, property developers and bankers," he told the Dáil.
Mr Hayes said the "biggest cheerleader of all" for the "reckless days and feckless ways of recent years" was former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. "Nobody in Fianna Fáil shouted stop. And those who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes were advised to commit suicide. Why? Because Deputy Ahern and FF wanted to keep the party going in order to win the election in the summer of 2007.
"Encouraged, supported and cheered on by the Government, property developers and bankers went on orgy of speculation, borrowing, lending and grossly extended leverage.
"These incompetent senior bankers believed their own foolishness and convinced themselves that they deserved their huge salaries and bonuses. Never has failure been so grossly and so brazenly rewarded," Mr Hayes said.
