Professor John FitzGerald:

I think it has done a pretty good job. It looks as if the State, instead of losing money, is going to get something back. There was much concern when it was set up - this is taking me a bit beyond what I expected - that it would be used to recapitalise the banks, to make life easy for the banks. We now know that, if anything, it was a bit tough on the banks. The discounts that applied to the assets were appropriate or maybe even bigger than necessary. I think it has helped in terms of the recovery and sorting out the problem. The concerns which were expressed when it was set up have turned out to be totally wrong. Partly because of that, because NAMA wanted to do a good job, the criticism was that it would be kind to the banks, it made sure it was not kind to the banks.

It is not my area of expertise.