A key component of the Irish Government strategy was to ensure there would be no collapse or fire sale of key assets which are currently under the control of the country’s leading developers. NAMA was supposed to be a confidence building measure for domestic and international consumption. A flaw in the strategy to date is not the modus operandi but its failure to positively communicate its mission. To all and sundry, the word NAMA and going into NAMA has negative connotations and that’s not just a public perception many business folk with considerable commercial acumen believe that too. Property developers are obviously divided on the issue. One reason is because the Department of Finance in the Republic of Ireland is actually managing NAMA and controlling the banks, leaving the whole process stalemated with banks unwilling and more likely unable to complete on many, if any of the promises it made to developers to their complete schemes.

Some developers are calling foul play over NAMA’s tactics of reeling in both performing and non performing loans.  They argue with some justification that they are being penalised for the recklessness of the banks and are now being hung out to dry by the regulations of the Government.

Unfortunately developers are all being tarred by the same brush by a hostile and indeed sometimes antagonistic media.

Indeed much of the media coverage in the Republic has very much been about playing the ‘man’ and not the ‘ball.  Recently one Southern developer attempted to show a reporter many of the successful schemes he had developed across Dublin in the past thirty years in an obvious attempt to bolster his track record and credibility as a serious developer and not a cowboy builder.

On reading the finished article it was clear this developer was very much like the frog who accepted the offer of crossing the river on the back of the scorpion. As anyone who knows the story will tell you, despite assuring the frog that it would not sting it, the scorpion does just that.  Just as both the frog and the scorpion are about to drown together, the frog asks the scorpion why he did it? To which the scorpion replies ‘why? I am a scorpion, it’s my nature’. So too some Irish journalists seem intent on venting their spleen (in the national interest, of course) on any developer.

It begs the question was this plethora of journalists, who seem to be raking in on our misery with their endless rush to sell us their tacky books about builders, developers and bankers, immune to the personal greed, avarice and self interest that seemingly afflicted the rest of the population?

That banking and financial institutions played fast and loose with our economy, there’s no doubt and that some cowboy developers brought more pokes than pigs (certainly more than they could afford), is also true but Credit Unions and Citizen Advice Bureaus up and down the country will bear testimony to a nation living beyond its means.

Of course, no one wants to hear that now and some journalists like Salome’s mother, want to serve us up a daily dish of the head of very banker, developer and builder they can find.

But let’s be clear some of those bankers and developers committed acts of corporate corruption and they should in course be delivered before the courts and if necessary serve time. Yet the prospect of any successful convictions diminishes every time a journalist on a bad hair day tries to name and shame them. Canny defence lawyers must be keeping weighty media files to prove their clients could never receive a fair trial given the about of media bile occurring on an almost daily basis.

Even Christ knew it was worth separating out the goats from the sheep and both NAMA and the media should start trying too!

The special sitting to cover extra business will see the Environment Minister read through the second stage of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill, the Social Development Minister do likewise with the Housing (Amendment) (No.2) Bill before taking the Welfare Reform Bill  to its conclusion.  

In Private Members’ Business North Down MLA Peter Weir will attempt to narrow the definition of a victim relating to compensation with the first stage of Victims and Survivors (Disqualification) Bill.

Matters are concluded with a debate tabled by SDLP Newry & Armagh MLA Dominic Bradley on the murder of the Reavey Family in Whitecross, Co. Armagh on 4 January 1976.

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Question time sees DCAL’s Nelson McCausland at the dispatch box before the Assembly does a spot of end of term spring cleaning to spruce up its procedures.

Matters are concluded with a Public Accounts Committee motion for the Assembly to take note of its Fourth Composite Report and First Thematic Report.

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DETI Minister Arlene Foster opens up some procedural jiggery-pokery before the Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy takes the Roads (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill through its final stage and OFMDFM ask the Assembly to take note of the Programme for Govt. recent delivery reports.

Question time for Justice & Agriculture precedes some Committee reshuffling with Peter Weir (DUP) filling a vacancy on the Assembly Commission and the DUP new boys, Jonathan Bell, Paul Frew & Paul Givan taking up positions on the Employment, Enterprise & Justice Committees respectively.

Matters are concluded by the first stage of David McNarry’s private members bill on financial support for the armed forces, a DUP motion examining the work of the Regional Autistic Spectrum Disorders Network Group, and a UUP motion on school attendance.

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His Executive colleague at Enterprise Arlene Foster follows with the same process for the Energy Bill before Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy moves the Roads (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill for its further consideration stage.

Employment Minister Sir Reg Empey shepherds the Employment Bill through its final stage before Health Minister Michael McGimpsey provides a rousing finale with oral questions.

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Finance Minister Sammy Wilson may stick close to the chamber as Question Time sees him back at the dispatch box straight after Environment Minister Edwin Poots fields his oral questions.

It’s a dog ate my homework day on the hill as the Social Development Committee apply for an extension on their scrutiny over the Caravans Bill and the Licensing and Registration of Clubs (Amendment) Bill before the Agriculture Committee follows suit on the Dogs (Amendment) Bill.

Matters are brought to a close with a rather tame OFMDFM committee motion taking note of the Written Ministerial Statement, ‘The Executive’s Priority Measures to Deal with the Economic Downturn.

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Next Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy goes in at the deep end as he seeks affirmation for both the River Bann Navigation Order (Northern Ireland) 2010 and the Donaghadee Harbour Order (Northern Ireland) 2010.

He is followed at the dispatch box by DETI Minister Arlene Foster for oral questions before Sir Reg returns to the chamber as the assembly debates a motion calling on him to examine and expand the Programme-Led Apprenticeships (PLA) Scheme.

Matters are concluded by an adjournment debate tabled by East Antrim Alliance MLA Sean Neeson on the upgrade of A2 from Jordanstown to Trooperslane.

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Next OFMDFM will open matters at the dispatch box before Sir Reg returns for oral questions.  

The SDLP continue their purge of outspoken North Antrim MLA Declan O’Loan by replacing him on the largely defunct Assembly & Executive Review Committee.

The penultimate item of business is the Environment Committee chair asking for an extension for the Consideration stage of the High Hedges Bill before matters are brought to a conclusion by a SF motion on the cost of fuel in NI.

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Mr O’ Loan’s crime was to speak of the love that dare not speak its name; i.e. the diminishing brand values that are the SDLP.  During the recent election Sinn Fein pulled off a significant PR coup against the SDLP by deftly but publically pulling their no hope candidate out of South Belfast and calling for a reciprocal move by the SDLP in Fermanagh/South Tyrone.  Sinn Fein argued that the nationalist electorate would be unforgiving of the SDLP if it did not put ‘nationalist’ unity ahead of their political principles. It was pointed out in this column that the SDLP position may not be fully understood by the nationalist electorate in Fermanagh/South Tyrone.  As a tactic it worked for Sinn Fein and the SDLP vote in Fermanagh/ Tyrone collapsed.  The SDLP could not afford a reciprocal move as it would have damaged the SDLP pulling power for tactical voting by moderate unionists in South Belfast, South Down and to a lesser extent Foyle.

The retention of all three SDLP seats with comfortable majorities assuaged the SDLP Leadership’s fears of an electoral meltdown but it also masked fundamental problems at a grassroots level.  Unlike the Ulster Unionists the SDLP could afford to concentrate their resources to the three target seats and this gave them a focus.  Elsewhere the SDLP vote was a casualty of their limited resources of manpower and money.  On the doors in nationalist areas there was dismay and sometimes anger about the lack of nationalist cooperation.  Many SDLP canvassers went home with that flea in their ears.

 The SDLP was right to spurn the hollow offer by Gerry Adams though they did not handle or explain its rejection very well.  The SDLP raison d’être is more defined these days by not being Sinn Fein than being for anything else. Declan O’ Loan is right to acknowledge the shift in allegiances that he is detecting on the doorsteps and the backing of some young SDLP Turks in his constituency suggests that he is not alone in his thinking. Of course, his decision to go solo on the matter was misguided but so too was the withering response by the SDLP media team which resulted in yet another sledge hammer being taken to a nut.

The SDLP put down of Mr O’ Loan was disproportionate and quite damaging to Mr O Loan’s political career in the party- though electorally speaking one doubts his position will do him much harm in North Antrim -an already at risk SDLP seat.

While realignment with Sinn Fein is completely a non starter for 95% of the SDLP membership; it’s high time the SDLP leadership acknowledged that change is afoot.  The constitutional nationalist plinth is now shared with Sinn Fein who as the largest nationalist party is administrating a devolved parliament within in a UK political context.

There will be nationalist re-alignment and the voters are ahead of the two nationalist parties in Northern Ireland which in Irish terms are both North-Eastern political phenomena.  In an evolving political framework the more likely result will be new political entrants or realignments which can best deliver to our economic and political aspirations than one monolithic nationalist bloc.

National economic well being will be to the fore; not nationalist identity.

 As the 1916 anniversary approaches the Taoiseach has warned against anyone hi-jacking nationalism as he believes there needs to be a new charter for a 21^st  Century Republic . 

The SDLP needs a new focus. In the current climate and as short to medium term project that is best found by being progressive on jobs and wealth creation, taxation, education and opportunity.  The SDLP should be the party of a ‘the hand up’ rather than ‘the hand out’. 

Nationalist re-alignment will happen but better the SDLP heed the message than shoot the messenger.

Next up its oral questions for the Justice Minister David Ford before an SDLP motion on the disparity between demand and provision for funded pre-school places.

Matters are brought to a close by an adjournment debate on the Urban Renewal Area Status of the Upper Long Streets in the New Lodge and the Parkside and Glen Areas tabled by Sinn Féin’s Caral Ní Chuilín.

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