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Senator Mark Daly:  I just want to tell Senator Alex White, in case he is inquiring, that I am Senator Mark Daly and have been a Member for three and a half years.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for Finance to attend the House to debate the absence of legislative provisions in the finance Bill to deal with bankers’ bonuses? I saw my colleague from County Kerry, Senator Coghlan, nod in agreement that these provisions were vital, yet they will not be contained in the Bill because his party will not allow it to happen in a timely fashion. I look forward to them being introduced in this House at a later date, perhaps under the stewardship of Senator Coghlan who might be Leader then.

Will the Leader arrange a debate on amendments to the NAMA legislation? Section 35 of the National Asset Management Agency Act, concerning the sale of assets under NAMA’s control, requires that a code of conduct regarding the disposal of bank assets be drawn up in three months after enactment. This was done but under the code of conduct all assets must be disposed of by auction or competitive tendering process. This is not happening, however.

There are numerous anecdotes, which I am sure colleagues have heard, about people who owe hundreds of millions of euro to the banks but who are illegally putting bids in on their own debt through third parties and offshore companies and buying it back at hugely reduced rates.

Despite this, NAMA is not following the legislation passed by this House. If it did, such bids would not be occurring.

If there were more time in this Government, amendments to the NAMA legislation could be introduced.

The issue is still the same as yesterday. The Labour Party could have had an election yesterday if it had wanted to and had the guts to do it. It did not do it. The Labour Party funked it.

You lot did not do it. You funked it.

Will the Leader bring in the Minister for Finance at the earliest opportunity to debate this most serious issue? Of the €2 billion in banks, assets sold so far, the taxpayer has only got back €200 million.

The rest of that amount has gone to banks not under NAMA.