National Treasury Management Agency (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Shay Brennan (FF), Dublin Rathdown

It has the governance structures, the financial expertise and the institutional capacity to manage what remains in a cost-effective and accountable way. Keeping a separate statutory agency alive with its own board, overheads and administrative infrastructure when the substantive work is done would be a waste of public resources. The model of a time-limited, purpose-specific vehicle has been vindicated. NAMA was designed to do a job and then to go. It is now going and that is exactly as it should be.
The transfer of staff deserves a specific mention. The men and women who worked in NAMA, particularly those who joined at the height of the crisis, took on a difficult and sometimes thankless task in a highly charged public environment. Many of them were working on complex financial, legal and property matters under significant public scrutiny and, at times, criticism. They served the State well. The transition to the NTMA should be managed with full respect for their rights and their service. I ask the Minister of State to confirm appropriate protections and continuity of terms are in place for all staff affected.
I will say a final word about what the passing of this Bill means because it is worth slowing down to reflect on. In 2010 when NAMA was being established, there were serious commentators – serious, informed people – who doubted Ireland could manage its way out of the crisis without a decade of depression, a sovereign default and a managed restructuring of the State's obligations. The scale of what we were facing was overwhelming but we did not default or collapse and we stabilised our banks, managed our debt, returned to the markets, exited the Troika programme and rebuilt.
I support the Bill. I commend the work of those who designed and managed NAMA over its lifetime. I welcome the transfer to the NTMA as a logical, efficient and appropriate conclusion to the agency's existence. I take this moment to note for the record of the House that Ireland's response to one of the gravest financial crises in our history was not perfect, as nothing ever is, but it was, by any fair measure, a success.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20