Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has said anything less than a 40% discount on the value of the loans being transferred from the banks to the National Asset Management Agency would be 'nothing short of outright theft from the Irish State'. He also called for a mechanism to allow the State to claw back some bonuses paid in the last five years to bank executives.
He was outlining his party's proposals on banking to the London Irish Business Society, given that NAMA was now going ahead.
Deputy Kenny said called for the setting up of a state-owned National Recovery Bank to boost lending, by drawing in new funding from the European Central Bank (ECB) and international markets.
He also said no more taxpayers' money should be invested in any of the banks until they reach a deal with their own investors and unsecured bondholders, to ensure that they will be the first to absorb any future losses.
The Fine Gael leader also called for 'a truly open parliamentary-led inquiry' into what went wrong, describing the Government's proposals as a 'secretive, insider whitewash'.
Mr Kenny said that, if elected Taoiseach, he would open up the files in the Department of Finance, the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator from the period from September 2008 to full parliamentary scrutiny.
He also called for a new regulatory framework to allow the State to claw back bonuses, paid in the previous five years, from the senior executives and directors of any bank seeking State aid.
'If necessary, this would be done by securing possession of personal properties and /or
attachments to future pension entitlements,' he said.
