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Junior Minister Fergus O'Dowd Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

O'Dowd says he is 'not on the side of developers'

Junior Minister O’Dowd said that he is on the side of “what is the best to get the best return for our assets”.

JUNIOR MINISTER FERGUS O’Dowd is not on the side of the developers – he is on the site of the economy, he said today.

O’Dowd made the comments on Newstalk this morning when asked about a report in today’s Sunday Independent that 66 developers are earning up to €200,000 a year for cooperating with Nama.

O’Dowd said it was “very important” that the story is out there, noting that Nama doesn’t pay the developers the money but allows them to take it out of the accounts they have while they manage the assets.

“The assets have to be managed within the best interests of the taxpayer and the State,” he said.

The alternative to certain developers, and not all of them, I think it’s only developers who are fully and absolutely compliant, is to put in receivers who would be far more expensive, their costs would be higher.

O’Dowd added that it is good if Nama is satisfied that they have transparency and accountability from the developers concerned, and this is the most efficient way to do it.

Acknowledging that the Celtic tiger “has brought us to this abyss in terms of our national finances”, O’Dowd said “the system collapsed because it was run on a boom that could never be sustained”.

He added that Nama is “doing an excellent job in very difficult circumstances” but said he is not on the side of the developers.

“I am on the side of the economy,” he said. “I am on the side of what is the best way to get the best return for our assets.”

I have personally brought developers to the High Court and made them do certain things out of my own pocket, so I’ve no issue about the credibility of what developers did or didn’t do.

Read: NAMA says it will give 2,000 homes for social housing. So far: there’s just 58>

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26 Comments
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    Mute Jurisprudence
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    Jul 15th 2012, 5:46 PM

    You do not hire a rapist to counsel victims of rape because it would cost more to hire victim support staff to counsel victims.

    These people are in the position requiring NAMA (thats us & our money) as a direct result of their actions, singularly as individuals and as a group/class. It is absurd that they should benefit in any way shape or form from their own negligence and/or greed. The statement that they are not being ‘paid’ but rather are taking from the asset base account is an insult to the intelligence of everyone not only in Ireland but everyone in the EU paying for their bailout. They are gaining legal consideration and financial benefit from the taxpayer after they ran the economy up a hill and threw it off a cliff face to the detriment of everyone else, without a moments concern for anyone else, simple.

    117
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    Mute Karswell
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:15 PM

    I would not commission a rapist to provide rape counselling, but I would definitely consider commission a hacker to provide and assess system security.

    58
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    Mute Shayno ZO
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:25 PM

    But this would be giving the hacker full control of said company not a advisory role. The developers should bring the asset controller up to speed or go to prison.

    40
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    Mute Karswell
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:38 PM

    Absolutely. Keeping the developers completely out of the loop would be cutting off your own nose to spite your face, as they are, sad to say, the most knowledgable about the properties held by NAMA, but I’m in no way saying they should be trusted. this constant framing of the details of the economic more as binary opposites; black/white, good/evil, left/right, hero/villain, it really isn’t turning out to be effective. A middle way is needed, pragmatic but distrustful.

    21
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    Mute Jurisprudence
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    Jul 15th 2012, 7:05 PM

    @Karswell. Sorry but I don’t think not paying someone upto €200,000 is keeping them out of the loop. They can be compelled to assist NAMA as part of the agreement to manage the assists through NAMA. There is nobody anywhere stating that the assets cannot be managed without them. They do not hold specialist skills requiring their presence. Schematics, construction documentation, safety certification et al are always available from others or they can be compelled to hand it over. I’m at a loss to find a strict requirement for their presence. Any suggestions?

    As for the good/evil comment they are not altruists, they didn’t do any of this for anyone but themselves, honestly who would, but for the many of us paying a price for their behaviour, some with their lives in this crisis, a NAMA developer still with a private helicopter, cars etc is the visual reality which contrasts starkly with their own struggle on a daily basis. I’m not arguing with you regards avoiding blanket black/white standpoints but what NAMA is is a laundering operation protecting and often employing the people who caused the problem it was established to resolve. The only thing transparent in NAMA is its expensive glass front door. There’s a reason for that and it’s not to benefit the people paying for it.

    35
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    Mute Karswell
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:15 PM

    I did not state that a €200,000 payment was justified. The distasteful truth, however, is that if a consultant charges € 200,000 for his/her services, and his/her services can be shown to have added more than € 200,000 of value to an organisation, then the fee is justified. If the value cannot be objectively defined, or if the value is less than € 200,000, then the fee is not justified. It then becomes a matter of evaluation, not a matter of ethics. I for one will always choose solutions rather than continuously decrying possible future failures.

    8
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    Jul 15th 2012, 9:53 PM

    Unlike the Quinn case where it was private bank VS 45 year old private company.

    This time, its private banks VS/(in bed with)
    private flyby night cowboy builders,
    who never paid anyone (even in the good times),
    namely the Galway tent crew.
    Question is
    What stupid politician made it the public’s problem?
    and why is there no developer media witchhunt??
    Developers wouldn’t be getting (taxpayer funded) media protection from NAMA and IBRC??
    Would they??

    14
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:02 PM

    Curious about Quinn VS Developers case??

    Media empires run by 2 wealthy tax exiles, slates and witchhunts family who created huge employment and paid hundreds of millions of Euro in Irish taxes but unfortunately is scammed (tbc) out of everything by corrupt builderbanker and a ponzi bank .

    One of the wealthy tax exiles flys his corrupt builderbanker friend around in his private jet to football matches, in spite of the fact that corrupt builderbanker runs up debts to the Irish taxpayer of €32 Billion and counting.
    Wealthy tax exile maintains that corrupt builderbanker friend is a ”good guy”
    Wealthy tax exile (who meets politicians in pubs) then buys utilities company from government well below what other bidders were willing to pay for it.
    Wealthy tax exile then gets huge utilities contracts from Irish government.
    Wealthy tax exile opens New York stock exchange with Taoiseach and gets invited to Farmleigh to advise government.

    Other wealthy tax exile gets Knighthood and closes down business leaving employees with little or nothing.

    Irish Media??

    16
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:11 PM

    These Cowboy Builders wouldn’t be getting a soft time from our ”unbiased” media because of the 100′s of millions of euros of advertisement revenue they gave them in the property boom??
    Would they??

    Ahh, the good old days of glossy property supplements that were thicker than the newspaper itself.

    12
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:18 PM

    Just to point out that this is just an observation and I bear no favoritism to neither Quinns nor to the developers.

    7
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    Mute Shayno ZO
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:14 PM

    Who is checking every transaction to ensure these developers are not creaming off the top or running scams like fake supplies, phantom labour etc…There are many.

    Topping up there apparently still lush lifestyles!

    Its a joke!

    45
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    Mute Karswell
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:58 PM

    I’m assuming that you assume that there are no checks and balances. You may be right, I don’t know. But you may also be wrong. I don’t mean to attack your comment, and I thank you from framing your first line as a question rather than as a statement of fact, I’m personally concerned about the level of despondency in the majority of political comments here, which I feel boils down to “everything is bad, every plan is doomed to fail, every politician is inherently corrupt and self-serving, there is no hope”. Without envisioning a better future, and the possibility of a workable strategy to get there, we s

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    Mute Danny McLaughlin
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:24 PM

    Excellent comment Karswell.
    There are so many cliche’s written in the comment section of this and other sites, it’s difficult to scan through to get a sensible comment.
    The most typical cliche’s are politicians are corrupt, builders are evil, solicitors are evil. Why don’t we through out a few new ones sometimes, like all refuse workers smell of aftershave or anything else.
    The constant drone in these comment pages of the exact same cliche’s is enough to drive away a lot of regular reader.

    10
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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:45 PM

    A politican says he is not on the side of developers.Yeah totally believeable.

    43
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    Mute Martin Mac
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    Jul 15th 2012, 6:45 PM

    Nama are a disgrace, they are purposely trying to keep rents high and property prices high. It won’t work though as you can only put so many cheap plasters on before it all falls apart. Corrupt little island to the extreme.

    42
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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:42 PM

    Martin that’s trolling in the extreme and seriously insulting to all of the employees in NAMA who are trying very hard to recover taxpayers monies and you call them all corrupt.

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:23 PM

    Does this mean all the sub-contractors who were forced out of business and owed money from these developers can expect to get what they’re owed?
    The state can afford to look after millionaire developers yet abandon the self employed people these developers conned…., this country and this government is a joke.

    37
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    Mute Toby Parker
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:21 PM

    The word “Business” in this country means shafting the poorest people possible for the largest amount possible.

    Morals? Honor? Integrity?

    Not in this Country.

    And the biggest toe rags are in Govt.

    29
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    Mute Stephen Murphy
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:54 PM

    Tom Parlon reckons, there’s a huge shortage of Office space in Dublin City? Am I taking too many pills?

    25
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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:40 PM

    The IDA last week announce there is an impending shortage of office space large enough to take a Google type of investment. Little bitty moles in the wall of one to seven thousand square feet are not of much value to large inward investors. Trust that answers your question.

    5
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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:09 PM

    Until recently there was nothing stopping these developers building another Priory Hall with NAMA (taxpayers) money. This was pointed out to NAMA and they said it was none of their business. Thankfully when it was pointed out to a certain TD, he got them to change their policy. It might also be worth investigating how many of these developers have ongoing planning enforcement actions against them from various county councils.

    20
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    Mute Niall
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:59 PM

    I’m so sick of this! How long can the government go on, making excuses, defending themselves, covering themselves. If they didn’t make mistakes they wouldn’t have to do these things, don’t get me wrong I’m not anti-government. But at 18 I have lost all faith in the leaders of my country.

    19
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    Mute Jim Walsh
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    Jul 15th 2012, 10:01 PM

    Finns Fail, Fina Gael, Bankers and Developers are all the one they together have destryed this country and continue to bleed it dry. They don’t care what happens in the Country once they can Line their own pockets and those of their CRONIES. Fact !

    11
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    Mute john g mcgrath
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:02 PM

    God bless him he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer so pushing him out to spin that line might get some creditability with the listeners.

    11
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    Mute Too Trueleft
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    Jul 15th 2012, 9:49 PM

    Fine Gael. Continuity Fianna Fail, nothing more, nothing less.

    Fianna Fail created nama to save the people who had stuffed their coffers, and now Fine Gael are making sure they remain well heeled for the same reason.

    10
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    Mute pol Mac cathail
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    Jul 15th 2012, 8:59 PM

    does he mean Dr James reilly?

    3
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