Sinn Féin is not opposing this legislation. I know the Minister is stepping in for Deputy Troy. I want to express my condolences to Deputy Troy and his family on the passing of his father. Our thoughts are with him at this difficult time. I want to say two things in relation to this legislation. We facilitated the quick passage of this legislation. We support the Credit Review Office. We have signposted many of our constituents to go to the office. I have tabled amendments to have a wider discussion in relation to its functions and to the fact that many businesses are not able to get credit now. They are relying on non-bank lenders. There are serious questions in relation to people having to turn to the shadow bank sector. However, the reason we were asked to bring this legislation in quickly is that this was set up through the NAMA legislation, and we were told NAMA had to be dissolved by the end of the year. As the Minister of State knows, NAMA was supposed to be dissolved under an agreement with the European Union in 2021. There was a review carried out prior to that. An extension was given very explicitly on the following basis: NAMA commits to disposing [of] its residual residential loans before the end of December 2025 and it is intended that NAMA will be dissolved by that date subject to outstanding litigation. We had the heads of Bill in the finance committee a year and a half ago. This has been on the priority list of every Government since - in every session - but we have not heard a dicky bird about this legislation, so I really question what is happening here. We have a CEO of an organisation that does not even exist, a CEO who was supposed to go to a makey-up job for the €430,000 he was on, but that had to be withdrawn when the public focused on it. There are serious questions about this. The legislation was being fast-tracked and accommodated. We were happy to accommodate it, and I made the argument that this had to be done before the end of the year, but it now appears it did not have to be done before the end of the year. Is there an agreement with the Commission to extend the NAMA legislation? If so, until when? The Minister of State may not hold the relevant note at this point. I know he is stepping in for the Minister, but I would appreciate if a note could be sent to me if the relevant information is not available to him. I am happy to support the legislation as drafted.

Sentiment score: 0.16