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The Daily PollYESTERDAY, THE REPORT of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Ireland’s financial watchdog, into the sale of the Northern Irish property portfolio Project Eagle was published.
The C&AG concluded that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) had lost €220 million on the sale of the loan book in April 2014. This is a conclusion that Nama has disputed in the strongest possible terms.
Yesterday, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty called for a “suspension of all Nama transactions” until the situation is resolved. Meanwhile, on the government side of things, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe managed to express confidence in both the C&AG and Nama in the same breath.
So it seems the government is fully behind the agency, and endorses its ability to perform its “exceptionally important duties”, in Donohoe’s words.
But do you?
We’re asking: Do you have confidence in Nama?
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Seriously, people have full confidence in NAMA – a secretive organisation stuffed to the gillies with bona fide members of the old school tie club. A little bit more of me has just died.
If you’re a member of the billionaire class then you should select “Yes, absolutely”. You’re probably fully aware already that NAMA was established as mechanism to allow you to loot the nation. The political and capitalist establishment never waste a good crisis to further their position at the expense of the working class. In this case the global financial meltdown which big capital created has been used to load trillions of debt on to national balance sheets, decimating public expenditure and providing the pretext to sell off assets at knock down prices.
It’s a neat little neoliberal Catch 22. The crisis which capital created is used as justification to advance the interests of capital and further crush the working class under the austerity program. Naomi Klein described this strategy very well is her book Shock Doctrine.
So NAMA presides over a vast firesale of land and property assets to the international vultures, many masquerading as charities to dodge tax and so further damage the state’s finances with the eager assistance of our establishment political class. All this is happening while a domestic homeless epidemic rages, families are crushed under huge mortgages and rents and in the extreme a terminally ill child sleeps in a car. It’s a feeding frenzy for the speculative sharks and the blood in the water as ever is that of the working class.
The greed, exploitation and misery is relentless and it will continue until the working class organize and take the necessary steps to put a stop to it. Any ordinary person who votes FG, FF or Labour is complicit in their own exploitation. We need a new mass party to protect the welfare of the working class.
Just another in Ireland. More shady deals being exposed, another inquiry. But yet no one is ever held accountable . Tells its own story. Untold millions lost to the Irish taxpayers. Millions then spent finding out what happened to lose the millions and the only people to take the hit on all sides. The Irish people.
Never did, don’t have, and never will have. To form such a secretive body in control of billions worth of assets owned by the citizens of the country unaccountable to no one but their self’s, will always lead to corruption. How a body like this cannot be accountable with any Information been classified as “commercially sensitive” will always lead to misappropriation.
Is there anything FF FG & Labour do that is not either obscenely incompetent or just plain corrupt and that doesn’t involve unjustly enriching their cronies.
Mick Wallace laughed at on NAMA subject by shifty Noonan,.comical kelly,,joan brutal ,,howler howlin among others, conman kenny tried to make a fool of Wallace speaking in Irish and ribbing him because his microphone wasn’t translating for him,, one question for all the Labour and Fine Gael comics from last term ,,, who is laughing now ??
I know of a couple of nama properties that were pulled from auctions and a private deal done hours before it was due to be sold. Most of the time to an third party friend of the person declaring bankruptcy. Then bought back by the bankrupt party a couple of years later. Job done. Debt written off… nama, corrupt to the core
you don’t need to be a billionaire. i do not in anyway trust NAMA, NTMA, the department of finance senior civil servants, the central bank and especially the current, incompetent, minister of finance. I am very much a capitalist (the economic policy, not the greedy money before people arch-type), and in no way are the above trustworthy in anyway to work on behalf of the public, which is their job.
The statute of limitations should be up on the findings of the Moriarty tribunal soon. More of these distractions will do nicely. We’ll surely top the list of corrupt countries next year after all this.
I know a property that was put into Nama after the owner missed one payment on the mortgage. It was sold off to a venture fund i believe. The vulture fund is now going after the owners private assets and home.
Nope
The truly outrageous thing is that these crooks KNEW that the corruption would be exposed and that there would be ‘investigations’, But were equally sure that they would not be punished because of the intervention of their friends at the top of the political dunghill.
“Complaining is silly, Either act or forget.” – Stefan Sagmeister
.
it is gone way beyond time, for us to take action against our enemy, – the government…
I knew that NAMA would be a lame duck when they took on Alan Dukes, another lame duck ex leader of FG.
ISBA, the apparent incompetence is deliberate. It gives the impression they don’t know what they do, or see no wrong. When in fact they know very well, will never be accountable, because they appear as foolish.
Ask yourself why RTE, Independent News and Media and all other media sites including this one done a hatchet job on Sinn Fein in the run up to the election.. The establishment in this Country do not want anybody but FF or FG in Government because they will facilitate corruption…
Dave Doyle, much of the carry on comes under an umbrella of “legal corruption”.
Chris
I think you are mixing up IBRC and NAMA. Dukes was in IBRC, not NAMA.
If any more proof were needed this is it, anything involving money in this country must have transparency and oversight, failure to carry this out dooms it to corruption and fraud on a criminal level. That said however, in the Irish tradition of protecting those in high places, the chances of prosecutions are remote, the chances of recovering lost revenue are laughable.
“No” vote went down from 85% to 76% in the last hour…I smell a rat.
@Alien8: If only all capitalists were like you Alien8 the world would be a better place.
Your Poll is too narrow …. no mention of Noonan who is guilty as hell of pressuring NAMA to sell, not only Eagle, but also other assets TOO EARLY!
Noonan is a puppet with his strings cut. he constantly makes decisions that he goes will please his masters, even when his masters aren’t there to pull the strings, or care what way he dances. Needs to be committed ASAP.
Does nobody in Government or the media remember what Noonan and FG done to Bridget McCole.. The media seem to remember what Gerry Adams had for breakfast 30 years ago but seem to forget Noonan dragging a dying Woman through every Court in the land to shut her up..
Set up to save big party donors.
Cosmo, to be fair to the rest of FG, that was noonan’s solo run, same as socialising the bank debt to mix with sovereign debt. FG’s only crime is letting that evil charlatan have those positions.
Alien,
None of this is a solo run by Noonan. His party FG have always protected the interests of big capital over the welfare of the majority. It’s blueshirt policy. Ditto for FF or course and Labour for many decades.
The poll should be , do you think the government put pressure on Nama to sell its assets quickly. Which is the reason the assets are going too cheap.
How fascinating it would be to thumb through the identities of those who voted “Yes Absolutely” what an insight it would give into the how the human mind works. Of course it would be necessary to take out those who work for Fine Gael and NAMA itself; ah there would be nobody left I suppose.
Did anybody GENUINELY think that a shadowy entity set up by Fianna Fail to sell off the worlds largest property portfolio, subject to no independent oversight, no scrutiny, and not being subject to FOI requests, was going to result in anything other than the Irish taxpayer once again being taken to the cleaners??
This was only compounded when noonan (allegedly) directed them to bundle portfolios in a way that only the largest vulture funds would be able to bid on them. Guess he wasn’t at those bilderberger meetings to hand out green jerseys.
How can anybody have confidence in an organisation that doesn’t seem to be answerable to anyone? The only thing we know about the goings on within it are that one deal cost us €220 million. Not to mention bags of cash exchanging hand in dark alleys. I for one have no confidence whatsoever in NAMA!!
btw: even though the state 100% funded NAMA through audition of bad loans, NAMA’s ownership is majority owned by the private banks. if the Irish government has an ownership in the bank, then they have set it up that the “wealthy clients” own it instead. All of this was highlighted at the setup of NAMA as being highly corrupt and the complete opposite of what occurred in Iceland, nonetheless FF, FG supported it. Traitors, all.
Confidence in NAMA!? A cartel of Top political associates, with previous involvement in the ridiculously over-heated Property market, put together by a Government who’s policies mainly led us to the Property Crash, tucked away in a secret corner away from anyones view (exempt from Freedom of Information act)….eh no!!! Only in Ireland would NAMA even become a reality after Property/Financial crisis!!
To be honest I preferred when the IRA were in charge of robbing, they never pretended to be decent. These feckers grin at you as they steal off your kids. Criminal gangs wear white collars these days.
Groundhog Day in Ireland. Another corrupt organisation.
Why did it take the BBC to scatters the feathers, well done Mick Wallace.
Now he has put the smile on the other side of Kenny and Noonan face.
As for Frank Daly there should be a audit on him
Is this a wind up poll.
Confidence in nama who lost the taxpayer untold millions.
Held secret meetings with no minutes.
Bags of cash in carparks.
Selling to vulture funds using charitable status.
Sure what’s not to trust
I have no confidence in a FG led gov, like the vast majority, but they still manage to get into gov on 25 percent support and poison the media with their bs and misinformation. No political democracy in ireland.
massively confident, what could possibly go wrong , yep super confident
Yea, we should form a protest rally ‘Leave NAMA alone’.
Sure aren’t they the cream of Irish banking, heaven sent and sworn to defend us all like knights of the round table. Giving so much of themselves to look after our money, even better than babysitting priests.
As a mafia style group out to put massive profits into the the pockets of millionaires at the expense of the Irish people?yes i have full confidence in them.
HAHA jaysus 3 suggestions imply you do whilst one just asks if you dont. Craturs i feel sorry for corp journos on this site trying to think up wys of non bias. Tip look at RTE Sindo Indo Oirish media in general. Sinking faster than a rather large turd in Mcdonalds toilets and rightly so. Pure crap. Think of yere future people.
Who are the 7% who say they have full confidence in Nama?….Obviously the ones who blindly follow the govt line no matter what but we should also remember that it was FF who set this up.
Nama is not the problem. It’s the mafia in Dáil Éireann that’s the problem.
Mick I refer you to my above comment.
Set up by politicians to benefit the politically connected …vulture funds sold mortgages at knock down rates..while the mortgage holders are denied the opportunity to bid on their own homes ..Battersea power plant. sold for a fraction of its worth ..huge losses in the north..but the taxpayers make up the shortfall…stinks..would love to see an independent report from a country like Canada or Australia on it..cant help but think for every dodgy deal we hear of..there’s probably a dozen or more we know nothing about ..
White haired men in suits, a history of trustworthyness.
Anybody with brain knows that thus company is a fuddle. The fact that its dealing are all done away from the eyes of the eyes of the general public indicates that they want to hide something.
A govt usually gets 5 years in one form or another. Just enough time it seems to enrich themselves and their buddies with obscene amounts by wrecking the country and ripping off the country. Id like to see kennys bank statements.
It is one thing loosing millions on shady, corrupt NAMA dealings. Why has no one questioned why NAMA took over the debts of bankrupt developers, and left the tax payer to cover the billions owed by them to the banks. No matter what NAMA sells, for what price, these debts will never be covered.
Contrast that to the 1000 families being hauled before corrupt eviction courts this week. In trouble with mortgages because of the greed of banks and developers.
10 Billion was provisioned to help them as a result of the banking collapse, that was part of the bank bailout.
Where has this money gone?? Why aren’t questions being asked about this money.
NAMA was set up to take over the loans and debts of bankrupt developers and flog them off.
In fairness to NAMA they are going to return a profit of €2 to 3 billion to the tax payer when they finish up in two years time. This is quite contrary to the expectation in 2009 that they could not recover the money the taxpayers gave them.
So you are simply wrong when you say that these debts will never be recovered. 85% of the money has been got back so far with the rest and profit to come.
That doesn’t mean NAMA hasn’t questions to answer. But we are getting our money back and more.
In fairness to Nama? If a fund was doing Nama’s job the profit would be at least 5 times that.
Greg,
have a read of the Dail debates on the setting up of NAMA in September, 2009, which are on line.
Richard Bruton and Joan Burton told Brian Lenihan that NAMA would never wash its face and the tax payer would be left with billions of losses. They ridiculed the prediction that NAMA might break even. They condemned the price that the taxpayer paid for the loans. I was sceptical myself at the time.
I’m no fan of Lenihan but overall NAMA has actually been a success and the critics of 2009 were simply wrong. What we are arguing about today is that NAMA is not making enough profit.
That’s a nice argument to have.
Ciaran, the 10 billion, what about that money?
You mean the €55 billion that NAMA paid the banks in 2009?
Not sure which €10 billion you are referring to. Anglo alone cost 28 billion.
@Ciaran …ok so let me get this straight. You are advocating that the Par Value of the ORIGINAL loanbooks&assets (not the notional values) will be surpassed by Nama in their liquidation of the net portfolio?!?!? Are you aware of the massive haircuts applied on the same, at the cost to the Irish Citizens already?!?!?
I’m not advocating anything. Just pointing out that NAMA is going to make a profit for the taxpayer when it winds up in 2018 which I and almost everyone else did not expect in 2009.
Life is not all doom and gloom. There are positives.
There are lots of questions about NAMA operations that should be asked but we should acknowledge that the original idea has worked.
@Ciaran…I could also say that the Moon is pink but theres no evidence to even suggest that it really is!! Thats my point. You are being naive in the extreme if you think NAMA is going to return a profit on those LoanBooks and property portfolios!!! You are just qouting government spin. Everyone knows the losses have already been crystalised and the BaNks recapitalised as a result…recapitalised by us the Public!! So dude sorry to burst your happy bubble, but in the real world the return on those properties and loans Vs the Par value that was paid for by the Taxpayer means a Huge Net Loss!!
Same old shite – when will the people of this country say to themselves, enough is enough. Hit the streets this weekend folks. It’s not about water anymore.
How haven’t Edna and Micky Noonan been taken out in a gangland killing, fu*cking crooks is all they are
Baahaahaahaa
Te Government should require NAMA to properly list all its properties with up-to-date profiles and asking prices with at least 2 real estate agents to receive expressions of interest and or offers.
As such overseas buyers can confidently travel for inspections and then complete the deal.
The current NAMA listing site is amateurish & vague as are the property for sale signs.
There is little sense in prolonging the agony any longer just to keep a few bureaucrat fat cats in a job.
All sales must be stopped,fraud squad into its offices immediately and investigate all sales.
The DUP rolling out the old “we are bigots,we will only talk to representatives of our noble and most gracious benefactors with our solictors present,we will never talk to anyone in the South”..
Another bunch of halfwits that need serious scrutiny.
As Lenin famously pointed out: Trust is good, but control is better.
Let us hope that in the light of the latest revelations, NAMA will be under much closer scrutiny and any person within the organisation who is leaking information will be brought to book for it.
‘Yes Absolutely’ – that makes me madder than anything else in the article.
If, at this moment, we cannot even prosecute ticket touting and ticket racketeering have we got any legislation that makes ‘fixing’ or ‘fraudulent’ behaviour an actual offence here ? Im not being flippant as I am aware there are actual facts out there that make NAMA look at best incompetent and at worse racketeers complicit in defrauding the taxpayer. But do we have a law to prosecute under? Many of the parties involved could claim they have broken no law and hence safe from criminal prosecution?
Hilarious RTE’s response,both tv and radio to the NAMA fallout.They were basking in the glow ,self praise of putting a few hidden cameras in Aras Attracta and then came along the Spotlight programme and blew them completely out of the water.
Like anything this government (and the last 2) touch, it’s an old boys club that is rotten to it’s core and veiled in lies,treachery and shady dealings.
I have full confidence in NAMA scr€wing over the Irish citizen again to the benefit of high level business
At the time of writing: Who are the 531 absolute morons who ticked ‘yes, absolutely’…???????
The results speak for themselves
If there’s one particular thing that I can’t understand about NAMA is the decision to bundle so many properties together for sale. The bigger the bundle, the more potential buyers are excluded. You’ll constantly see auctioneers selling farmland, for example, in “one or more lots” and 90% of the time the combined value of the lots outperforms the other!
Exactly dude!!! Buying in bulk always means one thing- Discount!!
No confidence in Nama no confidence in present puppets of a government
I have No confidence in NAMA these people seem to forget that it was short term thinking that got us in to the mess of the financial crash! Selling stuff off to vulture funds cheap is nothing short of Thief from Irish citizens
In principal it was a great idea but shady beginnings
Free the Journal 50
@Powerabbey: Portaloos come to mind there ;)
Nama is a joke in my view, I think they are self serving really but that is what I believe in my soul.
Powerabbey the blueshirt who always votes independant.
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