Lenihan in media blitz to defend NAMA plan

THE Government has anxiously sought to wrestle control of the NAMA debate in response to growing public opposition to the plan.

A raft of senior economists warned Finance Minister Brian Lenihan yesterday that the price he seems willing to pay for toxic bank loans is too high. But following the first cabinet meeting after the summer, Mr Lenihan launched a media blitz to rule out pre-emptive nationalisation of the banks or the substantial write-downs proposed by the economists.

“I am very concerned about the use of this nationalisation word in the debate because I believe with the general public it seems to connote an idea that somehow there is something we can get for nothing here.”