TDS AND Senators are facing an interruption to their long summer holidays after the Government signalled its willingness to recall the Oireachtas to facilitate the passage of legislation to set up the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan last night said he hoped to publish the legislation by July and would, if necessary, recall the House from its summer recess to ensure that the legislation was enacted.
While the Oireachtas is scheduled to rise in early July, the Government embarked on the Nama plan with the intentions to have the legislation through all stages of the House by then.
Interviewed last night on The Week In Politics programme on RTÉ television, Mr Lenihan said property and development loans held by the banks could not be transferred to Nama until the legislation was enacted. “There are enormous practical difficulties with Nama, and that is why we are taking our time in doing the preparatory work with the banks, in preparing the legislation which we intend to publish by July.
“We will call back the House over the summer, if necessary, to enact the legislation. It is important to get on with it in a measured way.”
There would be a continued “denial of reality” within the banking system if the Government did not press ahead with the Nama plan, the Minister added.
His remarks came ahead of today’s deadline for banks and building societies covered by the State guarantee to provide a breakdown of their property and development loan portfolios to the National Treasury Management Agency officials working on the Nama project.
The aim of this exercise is to provide an up-to-date picture of the deterioration in loan quality to facilitate preparations for the immediate transfer of troubled loans into Nama once the legislation is enacted. Each of the institutions were told last week to consolidate data on their loans.
First into this process will be Allied Irish Banks (AIB), Bank of Ireland and the Educational Building Society (EBS), each of which has incurred big losses on their property and development loans.
The nationalised Anglo Irish Bank is preparing this week to reveal impairment losses between €3.5 billion and €4 billion, a development which would trigger a need for significant new capital from the State.
