Green leaders accused of ‘con job’

THE Green Party leadership has been accused of a “con job” by grassroot members who were kept in the dark about major parts of the NAMA plan when they voted to support it at a special convention last month.

However, a Green TD has turned the blame to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan for not telling them of his intention to introduce the controversial Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a private company to manage NAMA’s debt and transfer half of property loans to private investors.

Green TD Paul Gogarty said the minister had “caused some problems for the Green Party” by introducing the SPV as an amendment to the NAMA legislation last week.

During another day of marathon Dáil debate on the NAMA Bill, Mr Gogarty said he was giving Mr Lenihan “the benefit of the doubt” that the decision had not been made at the time of the Green Party convention, because the Finance Department was awaiting information on the European Commission.

“In hindsight, it might have been better to indicate an intention to seek, subject to approval, the establishment of a special purpose vehicle. That might have made matters somewhat clearer for members on all sides of the House,” said Mr Gogarty to the minister.

Mr Gogarty said there is a feeling among members that “it was all a con job on behalf of our party leader”.

“These people state that we knew about the SPV and the surcharge and that we were trying to pull the wool over the eyes of our members. For the record, that is clearly not the case.”

The Dublin Mid-West TD said it is time for the Greens to change membership structures “particularly in view of the fact that it is not possible to deal with urgent legislation by means of special conventions.”

Fine Gael’s Bernard Durkan said: “Fair play to the minister, he managed to cod the poor Green Party.”

Mr Gogarty said there are questions that need to be asked about the establishment of the SPV and called on Mr Lenihan to support a Fine Gael motion for a special legislative framework to regulate the private company.

Fine Gael spokesperson on Finance, Richard Bruton, said politicians and the public will be playing “blind man’s bluff” in trying to observe the work of NAMA because it will not be subject to the Freedom of Information Act or proper Dáil oversight.

Mr Lenihan eventually gave into demands by Fine Gael to allow the Oireachtas to overlook the work of the agency, either through a new committee or an existing one. “I propose to contact the Chief Whip in the coming days to prepare an Oireachtas resolution to provide for the establishment of the committee or sub-committee and the specific detail on the terms of reference.”

But Mr Bruton, said such a committee would have “no teeth” because the minister last night refused to include it in legislation.

“We cannot go back to this blindman’s bluff as the way in which the Oireachtas holds the agencies like this to account, stumbling around in the dark in the hope we might crash up against something that exposed a weakness in the way business was being conducted. We need instead a strong committee to hold the body to account,” he said.