Monitoring NAMA - Banks need to foot bill

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called on Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to provide extra money so that the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) is adequately resourced to monitor the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

The C&AG must be provided with suitably qualified audit staff and the necessary budget to undertake the extra work because his office is charged with ensuring the public money involved is properly managed.

That ought be so obvious that one would think that making such a suggestion would be unnecessary. But what should be made quite clear at this time is that providing the extra money should be the function of the banks, not the Exchequer.

PAC chairman Bernard Allen has a valid point when he suggests that the committee be given the necessary powers to investigate what went wrong in the banking sector. That should include the power to compel witnesses to testify.

If this requires a referendum, so be it. It is time that we recognise lawyers are not the only people capable of conducting an inquiry. The lawyers have already benefited substantially from the inquiry system.