Eddie Kearns

Eddie Kearns

A prominent Waterford businessman, who has been part of an expert group advising the government on the budget and national recovery, said this week that the NAMA method of resolving the present banking crisis had the potential to achieve the very opposite.

Describing the decisions to be made in this area as ‘the most significant since the foundation of the State’, Mr Eddie Kearns  called on the government to seriously consider an alternative to NAMA.

Speaking to The Munster Express, Mr Kearns said politicians of all parties urgently needed to work together in the national interest to seriously consider an alternative proposal to NAMA that would have a much more efficient method of valuing and disposing of impaired assets. Such a move would lead to a much

quicker national recovery and job creation, he insisted “At a time when the government will borrow almost half of total income, something that is unsustainable, decisions taken now will have major implications for the future of the country and for several generations to come”, pointed out Mr Kearns.

Mr Kearns was one of a small group of businessmen and entrepreneurs who recently wrote an important document for the government entitled ‘Understanding the key issues – National Challenges to be faced’.

He said the NAMA method of resolving the crisis had the potential of doing the very opposite and could result in putting a millstone around the government of the day and every taxpayer in the country for the next 20/30 years or even longer. No other alternative was being given any serious consideration but now it must.

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