Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I mentioned there, the purchasing of the loans by NAMA resulted in €42 billion of losses hitting the accounts of the banks, you know, pretty much immediately. That hole then had to be plugged by way of taxpayer recapitalisation. In terms of the overall performance of NAMA, what you're saying is that you will pay back your €31.8 billion of debt, you'll cover your operating costs and potentially have a surplus then of about €1 billion. Do you think that that is a better outturn than might've been achieved if the property and development loans were left on the books of the banks and the banks to work them out over a period of time and perhaps benefit from an uplift in property values?