Changes won't stop progress of NAMA bill
Tuesday November 03 2009
A flurry of last minute amendments is unlikely to stop the bill to establish the State's €54bn 'bad bank' NAMA passing all stages this week in the Dail.
The legislation will be reintroduced tomorrow with amendments agreed in a marathon committee stage last week and which were due to appear on the Oireachtas website last night.
They include a surcharge on bank profits if NAMA fails to make a profit, the provision of "guidelines" to ensure certain levels of lending to business, and a windfall tax of 80pc on rezoned lands.
There are also powers for the State to take a shareholding in the Irish Nationwide and the EBS building societies, and an Oireachtas committee to oversee NAMA will be set up.
The legislation will next have to go to the Seanad before it can be signed off by President Mary McAleese -- and the possibility remains that Mrs McAleese could convene a meeting of the Council of State to advise her on whether she should refer the NAMA bill to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.
Yesterday, Joan Burton, the Labour party finance spokeswoman, said it was now three months since the "bad bank" draft legislation was published yet the Government has still not finalised its proposals.
Later today the Dail will debate a Labour Party private members motion calling for a two-year moratorium on family home repossessions by all banks covered by the NAMA scheme.
- Senan Molony
Irish Independent
