Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said the draft legislation to establish the National Asset Management Agency contains changes which will provide for banks to share a portion of the risks.
Read the draft NAMA legislation and the Explanatory Memo
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, he said the Government will buy the banks' loans with bonds at a discounted value, but to further protect the taxpayer some of the bonds will be at the risk of the banks' own performance.
He said next Wednesday he will give the Dáil an estimate of what he believed the value of the bonds will be but added that each loan would have to be valued separately.
Later on RTÉ's Six One News, Minister Lenihan said a big proportion of the risk would be carried by the banks and said the taxpayer would benefit from any upturn if NAMA made a profit.
The revised legislation establishing the National Asset Management Agency was published today.
Among the changes is a risk-sharing arrangement between the banks and NAMA. This means, in the case of a small proportion of the loans, the banks will not get all the money immediately.
Whether they receive further payment depends on whether NAMA is successful.
It will be a criminal offence to lobby new agency.
A tax of 80% on developers' profits will be imposed in cases where they gain from land that is rezoned.
The new agency will be obliged to report to the Minister of Finance every three months instead of every year.
Bank directors appointed before 2008 will be required to stand down over the coming two years.
Chief executives of banks will not be allowed become chairmen as happened in the case of Anglo Irish Bank.
Dáil debate next week
The Dáil is returning from its summer break next week, a fortnight earlier than usual, to begin debating the measure.
While no firm date for completing the legislative process has been set, Government sources are hopeful that it may have completed passage by mid to late October.
The series of amendments were outlined in a statement by the Green Party yesterday evening.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has denied that changes in the NAMA legislation were a sop to the Greens.
He said the legislation was a response from the whole Government to the situation in the banks.
Objections to NAMA
Meanwhile, Fine Gael Finance Spokesman Richard Bruton has called on the Government to publish the names of those who will be the beneficiaries of the NAMA plan.
He described the revised legislation as a 'patched up political deal' to help the Green Party to get through a difficult meeting at the weekend.
In a statement last night, Mr Bruton claimed NAMA was a secretive, tax-funded, politically directed, agency for 1,500 of the most powerful, well-connected, business people in Ireland.
Yesterday, Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore re-iterated that his party would not back the NAMA legislation.
Speaking on Morning Ireland today, Mr Gilmore said the changes in the legislation were merely cosmetic to allow the Green Party to support their coalition partners, Fianna Fáil.
Speaking at the close of his parliamentary party's two-day think-in Waterford, Mr Gilmore said that his party would use every parliamentary tactic to defeat the NAMA legislation.
He also described the amendment to the legislation as window-dressing to give the Green Party political cover for a Fianna Fáil measure.
The Labour Party will lead a protest outside Leinster House against the NAMA Bill before it is debated in the Chamber next Wednesday afternoon.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams insisted that the proposal should go to a public vote.
