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Junior Minister Fergus O'Dowd Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
NAMA
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”.
5.17pm, 15 Jul 2012
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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.
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“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.
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Marian is irreplaceable, but Brendan O’Conner is doing a great job. Let’s hope RTE doesn’t shaft him again.
Also I can’t believe Ray D’Arcy numbers have gone up. He’s getting worse and talking waay too much about him and the wife. Only good on kids shows of old
@Patricia O’Reilly: completely agree with everything you said. No disrespect to Marian RIP but Brendan filled in for her quite a few times of the months of those ratings. I feel RTÉ have treated him very harshly in the past. If Brendan wants to be the permanent replacement, the job should be his
The only time I used listen to the radio in the car was when Eoghan, Jen & Bernard were on in the morning but 2 FM decided to replace them with whatever that white noise is that occupies the slot now. I actually switched to the radio this morning for the first time in months when dropping the kids to school and after a quick scan of the channels it was straight back to Spotify again.
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