When NAMA came into being, the State was in a really dark place. The economy had collapsed, there were no jobs and people were really struggling. We had ghost estates and sites that were half developed. Fianna Fáil destroyed the economy. I remember it as clear as day. I remember friends of mine losing their jobs. To add insult to injury, when Fine Gael came into government in 2011, all it gave a damn about was austerity. The ordinary working men and women of this country were thrown under a bus. The most vulnerable, including pensioners and people with disabilities, suffered the most. I remember that. Now the economy is going well and there are jobs, but a lot of people are struggling more than ever. There are empty houses on a huge scale but there still are ghost estates, including in Carrignavar and right across the State. There is a site not far from here in Dublin Central that has been empty for ten years. It could be used to build public homes for the families and workers in Dublin who need them. Empty NAMA sites were sold off across the State and they are being sat on by speculators and vulture funds as they laugh all the way to the bank. I was elected to Cork City Council in 2009. I remember clearly the devastation caused by austerity at that time. Then Michael Noonan rolled out the red carpet for the vulture funds to come in and operate tax free. To this day, they still operate on a tax-free basis. The Government lets them off. The ordinary working men and women, however, are not free of tax. They still have to pay the USC. We are here today to talk about the winding down of NAMA. Why is there no winding down of the USC? Why is it always ordinary hard-working people who must foot the bill while the bankers, developers, speculators and vulture funds laugh all the way to the bank? The CEO of NAMA is moving to the NTMA on a salary of €430,000. All the NAMA staff will keep their terms and conditions of employment. I do not know what the CEO will be doing in his new role. He could be over there making tea. How can his appointment be justified? People are being laid off this week at Meta. Ambulance drivers are out fighting for their rights, and have been fighting for years, but the Government will not give them the terms and conditions to which they are entitled. However, there are jobs for the NAMA lads. They can be given anything they want. Where is the fairness? I recall standing on the picket lines with the Debenhams workers. When the Vita Cortex workers lost their jobs years ago, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael said they would make changes to legislation to protect workers. They still have not done it. Instead, they gave sweetheart deals to big business and vulture funds that picked NAMA dry. "Vulture funds" is the perfect name because they cleaned out NAMA. Deputy Doherty will soon table amendments, which we believe are fair and right, to protect workers. I know people who lost their jobs and houses and whose marriage or relationship ended. They lost everything. I know people who died by suicide as a result of the banking and financial crisis. We should never forget that Europe threw us under the bus. We were the only country that took on all our debt, while others were given a way out. NAMA might be gone but the USC is still here.

Sentiment score: -0.09