Second former FG leader backs NAMA

A SECOND former Fine Gael leader has backed the Government’s proposed National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

In a major embarrassment for the party, Alan Dukes joined Garret FitzGerald in supporting the coalition’s plan to buy €90 billion of property loans from the banks in a bid to cleanse their balance sheets of risky debt.

Mr Dukes delivered a withering put-down of Fine Gael’s alternative “good bank-bad bank” proposal, saying it was “very cumbersome, very doubtful of success and much less clear in effect than the NAMA proposal”.