Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan has insisted that the State will not over-pay for toxic assets when the National Asset Management Agency is established.
Mr Ryan said the Greens were insisting on changes to the draft proposals. He said when the final proposals were published, he was confident that the first people to pay would be the speculators, developers and bankers who made the wrong calls on the property market.
The Minister for Communications said land banks that were re-zoned and bought for speculative purposes would be subject to massive discounts by NAMA. He said NAMA would not amount to a bail-out for speculators, builders and bankers.
The Green Party minister said draft proposals for NAMA could and would be improved before a final Bill was published, and this would provide greater protection for taxpayers.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein's finance spokesman, Arthur Morgan TD, has called for a national referendum on NAMA to take place on the same day as the Lisbon referendum.
Economists want NAMA reconsidered
Minister Ryan's comments came as a group of economists urged the Government to reconsider its approach to NAMA, saying that not to do so would be 'economic folly'. But a senior government advisor said the group's newspaper article was 'poorly drafted'.
This evening, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan rejected some of the economists' assertions and moved to reassure taxpayers.
The 46 academics, with ten professors amongst them, entered the debate on the future of NAMA in an article in this morning's Irish Times. In it they argue that alternatives to NAMA are possible.
They say that in its current form the agency commits the state to over-pay for troubled bank assets and argue that there are a number of other ways to lay the ground for a healthy banking system.
They say only the current market value for assets should be paid, and not 'optimistic' higher values envisaged under NAMA. This would leave the banks in need of more capital. They also say that more of this should come from bondholders and shareholders of the banks.
Government advisor Dr Alan Ahearne disputes a number of the the group's claims. He especially criticises their argument that the banks' troubled assets are now worth only €30 billion.
