GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley has warned Fianna Fáil that it would have to stop “humming and hawing” on measures against property speculation his party insists must be included in Nama legislation.
The warning came as Alan Dukes became the second former leader of Fine Gael to back the Government’s proposals after Garret FitzGerald’s comments last weekend.
Yesterday Mr Dukes criticised the alternative national-recovery bank model suggested by his party.
During intensive discussions at three Cabinet meetings last week, the two Green Ministers insisted that the Bill establishing the assets agency must include: a windfall tax on property developers; criminal sanctions for individuals who lobbied Nama; clauses to ensure that Nama-owned landbanks be developed in a sustainable manner; and an “iron-clad” risk-sharing mechanism to protect the taxpayer from overpaying for property assets from banks.
Mr Gormley told The Irish Timesyesterday that given the history and outlook of the Green Party, this issue goes to the heart of the party's participation in Government. He said its membership will view those strong new measures, designed to clamp down on speculators and reduce the risk of a new property bubble emerging, were absolutely essential in any Nama model.
The party’s members will meet in Athlone next Saturday to discuss the legislation. The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday is seen as crucial in determining what is being viewed as a Green Party ultimatum on the proposed solution to the banking crisis.
“Our Fianna Fáil colleagues will have to stop their humming and hawing. The Green Ministers must be able to go back to our members with the message that we won’t see a new property bubble or speculators benefiting in any way,” Mr Gormley said.
It is also understood that in internal discussions several prominent figures in the party have suggested that former comptroller and auditor general John Purcell be approached to take on the key position of chair of the assets agency, on the basis that he is a respected non-partisan figures. Other names that have been suggested for the pivotal role have been former attorneys general Rory Brady and David Byrne. Another former attorney general and former leader of the Progressive Democrats Michael McDowell has also been mentioned.
Mr Dukes, a former TD for Kildare South, who sits on the board of the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank, said Nama was the “best of the proposals that’s on the table”.
“There are huge unknowns about the way we do this . . . It seems that we need an entity with pockets deep enough to hold the titles of the property until the market turns around,” he said.
“The Nama proposal in itself has big questions hanging over it because of the nature of the problem . . . how long it will take to recover and we don’t know how far it will recover.”
He said he had grave doubts about the feasibility of the Fine Gael proposal which suggest the setting up of a national recovery bank and good banks and bad banks. “It seems to be very cumbersome and very doubtful of success and much less clear in its effect than the Nama proposal.”
He also criticised nationalisation, which is the core of the Labour Party’s proposal, as not being a fundamental approach to the problem.
“Three major banks nationalised would create very very difficult political problems for any government,” he said.
A Fine Gael spokesman responded by saying that Nama itself was risky, contentious and cumbersome.
“Virtually no independent commentators support it and it’s obvious that despite the barrage of endorsements from Fianna Fáil . . . 75 per cent of voters refuse to back the plan.”
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore told RTÉ yesterday that nationalisation was the only sensible option to pursue that would result in banks removing toxic assets from their loan books.