Dublin - Protesters were gathering outside Ireland's parliament Wednesday as the debate on setting up a bad bank, the highly-controversial National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), was set to begin. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was due to disclose the full details of what the deeply unpopular government will pay to buy the toxic loans of Ireland's banks.
The government proposes purchasing loans worth between 55 and 60 billion euros (87.9 billion dollars) after it has applied a discount of 30 per cent, national broadcaster RTE reported.
The Fianna Fail/Green coalition government's plans to set up NAMA, aimed at managing mainly property-related bad debt, have been met with widespread public anger.
"The country is on its knees," one protester outside parliament said. "Why should we be funding the people who brought it to its knees?"
Protests were expected to continue all afternoon as members of trade unions, political parties and other groups organizing demonstrations gathered outside the parliament to voice their opposition Wednesday.
Eamon Gilmore, leader of the opposition Labour Party said people were opposed to the NAMA plan and were angry about what he called a "Fianna Fail legacy" of debt and unemployment.
The government was "making up the NAMA legislation as it goes along," he charged.
The same approach was being taken to the valuation of loans and properties involved, he said.
Gilmore said the markdown to be announced by the finance minister is an estimate, which is not based on valuation on a property by property basis.
He said it is a "big generalised estimate" and a gamble for which the taxpayer will end up paying the price.
Across the political spectrum, there is huge scepticism about the prices the government is paying for the property loans with many viewing the bailout of the bankers as the ultimate in cronyism.
Many feel that the taxpayer will pay the price as the bankers and property developers walk away unscathed.
According to opposition Fine Gael's Enterprise Spokesman, Leo Varadkar, the fatal flaw underpinning NAMA is "the absence of any credible evidence whatsoever to suggest that property prices are only temporarily depressed and will recover their recent losses."
The nationalist Sinn Fein party was appealing to members of parliament to support its move to petition the president to hold a referendum on the NAMA legislation.
Sinn Fein parliamentary leader Caoimghin O'Caolain said that his party needed two-thirds parliamentary support for this measure to succeed.
Members of parliament are coming back early to start debating the NAMA legislation and the complex bill is likely to take at least a month to pass, according to RTE reports.
