NAMA is nothing short of economic treason

THE column by Brian O’Mahony headlined ‘NAMA delays would be bad for the country’ (August 8) was, to quote Judge Peter Kelly, “trespassing on fantasy”.

NAMA must not be rushed. Had the Government properly managed evoting, PPARS, PULSE or decentralisation, we might have got some value from the millions it wasted on these projects.

With its latest project, its not millions but billions of taxpayers’ revenues that are being wasted on overvalued rubbish. Had the financial regulator (Government watchdog?) done its job properly and not just walked, our troubles would undoubtedly not be so great. And we are giving the same Government the same power? Again? It’s legitimate to demand an unequivocal answer as to why the state, via the actions of the Government, favours de facto private interest over the citizens?

NAMA, in its current form, is nothing short of economic treason — banking legislation written by bankers for bankers and for the good of nobody except bankers and their property development debtors. Currently it has got all the hallmarks and financial engineering brilliance of Enron. The old Celtic Tiger could afford previous levels of Government waste and incompetence but Ireland — European Capital of Incompetence 2009 — cannot afford to get NAMA wrong. Don’t let the Government hoodwink the nation into accepting the flawed NAMA bill in its current form and please, please, don’t allow it to be rushed.

Paul Feeney

Botanic Hall

Glasnevin

Dublin 11