FG: Concerns on NAMA disturbing

NTMA chief executive Michael Somers’ frank comments about the proposed Government scheme to clean up the banks were “extremely disturbing” and raised many serious questions, the opposition said last night.

Fine Gael yet again voiced its opposition to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the body being set up to take property loans off the banks’ hands. It is to be established under the aegis of the NTMA (National Treasury Management Agency).

Mr Somers told the Public Accounts Committee yesterday: “I’m still not sure how the proposed NAMA operation will interact with the NTMA.”

He added: “I’ve no idea whether this would work because we have no experience of bank restructuring or indeed of this whole new area which is coming our way, and we’ll be on a very steep learning curve.”

Fine Gael finance spokes- man Richard Bruton said he was “flabbergasted” by Mr Somers’ comments.

“Fine Gael is deeply disturbed that the Government has rushed headlong into the NAMA scheme whereby the taxpayer will shoulder the responsibility for working out the losses on the massive €90bn pot of loans on development lands and unsold or partially built properties. This is an undertaking of Napoleonic proportions,” Mr Bruton said.

“At a time of huge uncertainty when governments the world over are cautiously groping towards solutions, this is not the time for a small country with a deep problem in the public finances to plunge into a project on a scale never before attempted,” he added.

Labour, which called for the banks to be nationalised earlier this week, again voiced its concerns about NAMA in the Dáil.

A Labour spokesman said: “The comments from Michael Somers are extremely disturbing and raise yet further serious questions about the viability of the whole NAMA proposal.”

The Taoiseach refused to respond to issues raised by Mr Somers last night, saying only that the Department of Finance was still working out the details of NAMA.

A spokesman for the department said the legislation to establish the agency had yet to be published. He said it was Brendan McDonagh, and not Mr Somers, who was the interim managing director of NAMA – the implication being that Mr McDonagh would be the expert on the issue.