Why I am voting against the Programme for Government

NAMA is like a mortgage taken out by the state and securitised by the public finances. We should therefore seriously consider whether a state that is already borrowing heavily just to meet daily expenses is in a position to take on such a mortgage. In the case of a household or business the answer would be no.

We need to wake up to the fact that, as a small open economy, Ireland cannot afford to take on such a risky mortgage until our public finances are put on a sound footing. This means that we should hold off on NAMA at least until our current deficit is within the recommended 3% GDP threshold, and also until our massive levels of private sector debt, which stood in July at €384 billion, have been significantly reduced.

To take on the gamble of NAMA, or nationalising the banks for that matter, under the present circumstances would be to ignore the risks involved.

If anyone wants to confirm how blind the Department of Finance has been to these risks they should consult the Macroeconomic and Fiscal Framework 2009-2013 on the Department's website. This is the strategy document containing our budgetary and economic projections for the next four years. Nowhere does it mention the level of private sector debt in Ireland, even though it is evident that increasing the liquidity of the banks will have little or no effect on indigenous investment or consumer spending while private sector debt remains so high.

We are in a perilous economic position because we did not properly evaluate the economic risks we were taking over the past decade. To proceed with NAMA without taking our enormous levels of private sector debt into account, and without having first corrected our public finances, smacks of incompetence on a par with the past lack of regulation of our banks.

NAMA is also at odds with good planning. If the Green Party were in opposition we would doubtless be firmly opposed to it.

For these reasons I will be voting against the Programme for Government at the Green Party convention tomorrow unless it specifically states that NAMA will not be allowed to proceed.

Brendan McCann

(Green Party member and general election candidate for the Waterford constituency in 2007)

Viewmount,

Waterford