He is opposing student housing in his constituency at Baker's Corner. He is a hypocrite.

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He is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

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Hypocrite.

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Yes. I only need a little more time.

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I thank my colleague for sharing time with me. This is a very important Bill and I welcome the opportunity to speak on it. As Deputy Brennan said, nothing in this time was perfect but the State had to very quickly step in and decide how we could manage assets at a time of global financial crisis. Since then, NAMA has been lauded internationally as one of the best structures put in place during the economic crash of those years to manage state assets. I can only think of one comparable initiative. A few years prior to the economic crash, I was an Erasmus student in the Czech Republic, which only seven or eight years previously had emerged from communism to stand on its own two feet as a democratic country. It was also a fledgling EU nation at the time following the passing of the Nice treaty. The country had to bring in mechanisms to stop people from overseas purchasing properties at knockdown prices as it wanted its own people to have the properties. It seemed a very sensible approach and it too has since been wound back. It makes sense to wind back NAMA. It was a solid way to manage State assets at that time. It is worth noting the agency took on a loan book with a par value of €74 billion. This comprised 60,000 properties and 5,000 borrowers. Over its lifetime, it repaid all €32 billion in debt issued to acquire loans and has been fully financially sustainable throughout that time. This is good legislation. NAMA may not have been popular initially, but it has certainly proved its worth. It has been shown to be a good, solid and stable basis on which to manage assets during a time of crisis. Charges were made moments ago about how developments happen in south Dublin. I was a school teacher. Many of my past pupils are gearing up for their leaving certificate examinations and they will make choices over the coming weeks about what college they will go to. God help them if they are going to college in Dublin. A development called Baker's Corner, with 300 student accommodation beds, was planned in south Dublin. The lead objector to that development, which took it through the wringer and all the way to An Coimisiún Pleanála, or An Bord Pleanála as it was then known, was Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett. I will quote from his appeal. It stated: "It is much too large and will be very much out of character with ... the 2 storey houses and Ashbury Nursing Home". When students from County Clare are looking for accommodation this year, they should remember that this project has been held up for five years, and it may never see the light of day, because of the hypocrisy of one of the Members of this House.

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