GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley has warned that his party will not continue in Government if the membership declines to approve the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), or a new programme for government, at a crucial convention in about three weeks’ time.
It emerged last night that serious tension developed at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning, involving the two Green Ministers and Taoiseach Brian Cowen, over the details of the speech on the Nama Bill to be delivered later in the day by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Government sources played down the row but conceded that there was “tension and intense negotiation right to the end” over the details of the figures to be announced by Mr Lenihan.
Shares in the country’s two largest banks, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks (AIB), hit their highest levels this year after the Government outlined the scale of the toxic loans moving to Nama.
The two banks gained €1.16 billion in value as investors were buoyed that Nama’s writedown of their bad property loans would not lead to a higher Government stake and dilute the investments of the existing shareholders.
AIB’s declaration of confidence in its capacity to private raise about €2 billion in new capital without any resort to fresh State capital was greeted with considerable scepticism in Government circles.
In the Dáil yesterday, Mr Gormley said he was aware of the great responsibility that rested on the shoulders of the Green Party. “The new planning legislation and the new programme for government will be transformational in nature. They will be accepted by the Green Party membership only if that is so,” he said.
Later, on the News at One on RTÉ Radio, Mr Gormley said that if the programme for government was rejected at the convention or if the Nama Bill was rejected, “we could not continue our participation in government”. The Minister for the Environment said real amendments would have to be taken at the committee stage of the Bill but he expressed confidence that the introduction of a social dividend as well as a windfall tax would be part of the final legislation.
The Green Party convention is likely to take place on October 10th, but no firm date has been set and it could be pushed back if negotiations on the review get bogged down. Formal talks on the matter have yet to begin.
Mr Gormley pointed to the fact that Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan had said they were prepared to allow plenty of time for the committee stage of the Bill so that improvements could be made and amendments, including those from the Opposition, could be considered.
Fine Gael spokesman on the environment Phil Hogan said last night that Mr Gormley’s reference to the Greens withdrawing from government was “an encouraging signal” to the public.
“The publication of the Nama legislation is an acute embarrassment for the Green Party. After blowing their own horns last week claiming to have secured major changes to the Nama legislation, the reality is that they have had little or no impact.
“Most embarrassing for the Green leadership was the claim last week that there would be a 50/50 split in risk share between the taxpayer and the banks. That split is going to be 5 per cent for the banks and 95 per cent for the taxpayer,” said Mr Hogan.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said she did not have any concerns that the Nama Bill would not be approved by the Green Party. “I listened to what the leader of the Green Party had to say and he gave a very pragmatic approach to what has happened and the workings that were needed between ourselves and themselves of the context of Nama, so no, I’m not [concerned] . . .”
