could it be any worse having the imf here instead of a govt that comprises the most corrupt political party in europe-f.fail and economic retards- the greens who have messed up the lives of its citizens,as someone who voted yes to lisbon the last time,i will be voting no this time.If for 1 reason alone it will remove cowen and gormless from power.

Too many people spout out the over bearing line of corruption, brown envelopes etc with regard to the situation we are in. That day is thankfully long gone for politics and it great to hear one of the most respected politicians in this country support NAMA. It IS the only game in town, It is approved by the IMF & the EU, it is not the ideal solution, but it is the only one available to us at this stage.

The general public have to see that the gainers in this whole bubble was not just the big bankers with their bonuses, but also the landowners who sold their land, the pensioers who saw their pensios rise, the person who sold mortgages, the estate agents who sold houses, the retailers who sold more goods, the disabled who got more allowances, the ordinary person on the street who has the lowest taxes in the eu, the family who sold the property of bereaved ones, the brickies, electricians & carpenters on building sites who charged twice the rate for work than that of other countries.

We ALL gained to some extent, we ALL must bear the cost. - Preferably the bankers bearing the most cost.

I believe Dr Fitzgerald is largely correct. I fear we are becoming “ungovernable”, not in the public order sense (not yet anyway) but in the political sense. The public seem to be growing increasingly unwilling to accept the extremely unpalatable medicine that we will have to take sooner or later. We are getting increasing amounts of populist rhetoric, some of which makes for very lively and entertaining discussions on the radio but which misleads the public about our true situation.

I was particularly disappointed with the offering of the 46 “leading” economists during the week. They undermine the credibility of academics and researchers when they allow their letter to appear under the headline “Nama set to shift wealth to lenders and developers”. This claim that Nama is involved in shifting wealth to developers is essentially dishonest and cannot be justified. There are several other quite misleading claims in the article also which should not be the case if they wish to be regarded as objective analysts.

As a retired academic I believe it was wrong for a number of those who signed the letter to do so, especially as members of named departments or schools in named universities. It seems to me that by doing so they were claiming the status of objective expert commentators on a matter of crucial national importance. I went to the trouble of looking up the areas of expertise, their research interests and their publication records for of a number of the signatories. Some, at least, would have great difficulty establishing a claim to be expert witnesses on the relevant issues. I may be accused of unfairly playing the man rather than the ball here but politics is a rough business and if you cannot stand the heat you should not go into the kitchen. In this age of information overload one of the first things you must do is check the credibility and reliability of your sources.

I make these comments as someone who has long felt that the Ahern, McCreevy and Harney were a disaster in macroeconomic terms, perhaps Cowen a little less so. I believe Fianna Fail should be banished into the wilderness at the next election but now is not the time for an election. However, the behaviour of Fine Gael is a bit disturbing. Allowing Lenihan get on with it is probably what is sensible at this time – a version of Alan Dukes’ Tallaght strategy. Even three years from now I believe the voters will not have forgiven Fianna Fail for the havoc they created for so many people. Submitting amendments and optimising the arrangements for Nama should be the objective of both Fine Gael and Labour for now. However, in the national interest we need a version of Nama so letting Fianna Fail and the Greens get on with it probably the correct policy for now.

Dr FitzGerald was not able to warn that over lending was occurring either. He does not know his own words. He does know the next three months are crucial. Why? What is he not saying? Is this to cover that again he does not know? What does he know? That the future of Ireland should be tied up in bad loans made to bad developers? The government aim is to increase the cost of land and that is meant to make us more competitive? Really? And what are builders to do in the meantime?

Its all very depressing.The country is very unequal and in a complete mess. Never mind what politicans,media,economists etc say,we dont have people of the proper stature running the country. In the 30 years since we broke with sterling our politicans have twice bankrupted us. As for Garret Fitzgerald his record in office was dismal too.We are bankrupt and the joke of Europe. We have no choice but NAMA but its also time to bring in the IMF to instill discipline no matter how humiliating that may be.
Anthony

I agree with Mike, no logic to comments 2 and 10. Is he against Fitzgerald or FG or both, or FF or what. Notice government spoke people are quoting Garret all week to defend their position. No wonder we have one party state with the likes of Fitzy making their case. Garret knows as much about the best way forward as lenihan/cowen/ santa or myself Lets get one thing clear, A FF minister will, I repeat will bail out the developers, one way or another. It would be a scandal if they didnt seeing the builders have been funding the Party since the first planning acts of 1963

Garret raises some interesting ideas in respect of NAMA. Ireland Inc. is heading towards an economic black hole and Government needs to roll the dice in terms of dealing with toxic debt.

It seems like we're stuck between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. NAMA will be the biggest gamble in the economic history of the State.

I believe it's a gamble worth taking as sitting on your hands gets you nowhere.
The most important issue now is to evaluate the sell on prices of the said toxic assets as it will fall on the Irish Tax payer to underwrite NAMA...

garret fitzgerald is telling it as it is,lets suppose we do nothing or we wait until the optional ideas of the other parties are clarified,how long would it take.this is where he is comming from.and i agree,we are stuck with nama and fianna fail.fianna fail are unfortunately not going anywhere.this is their chance to undo the damage they allowed the credit tiger to do.the ridiculous overspending,allowing negligent oversight of the banks and ludricous economics.followed by the arogance that infuriated reasonably minded people, we are untouchable.this is where my suggestions comes from.[nama for the family home owner].i believe the government should realise for the citizen that the inhindsight value of the family home that you purchased for 300,000 euros in 2005 is truly worth 230,000,the 70,000 going into the toxic bank within nama..instead of paying 1,500 euros per month to the greedy bank,pay 700.00 per month netting the bank over a35 year term almost 300,000,the ammount it lent out,a return given the present outlook they are most certainly not to retrieve,20.00 euros per week to the government netting over the same period 35,000 again money it would never get.i believe the above might create hope,hope,hope for the family who have a really good chance of with a long term view of keeping their home,providing much needed extra essential goods,more purchasing power sustain and create employment,take unavoidable unassistable strain off social welfare and ultimately give great assistance to the department of finance.can it be done.secondly,i would suggest the immediate creation of an all party or proffesional persons appointed by the parties,oversight advisory committee on the oversight of financial correction.matters of financial caution regarding flippant financial ideas like the ones that flattned our great country.where the financial regulator is in mandatory contact,obedient regarding disclosure,but not to interfere with the every day workings of government and its management of its other departments,ie budgetery matters and so on,just oversight on new ideas for bank greed and political party friendships,,not for institutional,individual or political glory.can it be done.take care.

Look they were voted back in by the people at the last election so we cant complain then we voted against Lisbon so as a nation we haven't a clue about the facts ,voting against the Lisbon treaty was an own goal of gigantic proportions are stock in europe has hit the floor, we got billions out of europe and then we get up on our high horse and kick it back in europes face thats gratitude for you. We better vote for Lisbon or we will be left for dead, we have to lick the shoes of the Germans now because they have the deepest pockets and they wont be so forgiving if we vote no again.