Mr. Frank Daly:

The overall point I would make, is that while NAMA is guided by its commercial objective, it doesn't operate in a vacuum. We are conscious of the impact of our work on the wider Irish economy and on communities and we work hard to ensure that our impact is a positive one.

The final line of inquiry you asked me to deal with Chairman, was the establishment of performance metrics by the board of NAMA. The key measure of NAMA is our capacity to repay our €31.8 billion debt. Progress we are making can be seen by the fact that we have already exceeded the cumulate ... excuse me, 50% senior debt redemption target originally set for the end of 2016. We have done that two years ahead of schedule.

Last month we redeemed another billion of our senior bonds, bringing to €17.6 billion the amount of senior debt that is redeemed to date. That is 58% of the senior debt originally issued in 2010-2011.

We're able to repay our debt ahead of schedule because of the strong cash performance, the €25 billion that I talked about earlier. NAMA, while we're not a publicly limited company is an organisation that operates at the highest end of the public interest and governance spectrum. The fact alone that NAMA must publish quarterly financial statements that are prepared in accordance with IFRS shows that NAMA also operates at the highest end of the transparency spectrum. NAMA has adopted the best practices of corporate governance including financial and management reporting practices, board composition, and structure and risk management. NAMA has designed and implemented a robust management information system, and has clearly defined key performance indicators in place, which form the bases of its internal reporting and monitoring framework whereby the NAMA board and sub-committees are regularly kept informed of the organisation's commercial and operational progress. The board of NAMA also recently reviewed a C&AG recommendation to the effect that it should set an expected or target rate of return to measure its overall performance, and that it should also measure its performance by reference to targets for the return on disposals, and on property held by debtors and insolvency practitioners. In line with this, the board has approved a number of rate of return measures, which it considers appropriate for its business, and we propose to report on these additional measures in our 2014 annual report, which we expect to publish at the end of May.

In conclusion, Chairman, I would simply emphasise again the point I made at the outset that NAMA is here and is a key contributor to dealing with the fallout from the banking crisis and not a contributor to its cause. I know you have asked NAMA to attend this committee in the context of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the domestic policy responses, and it is for others, including yourselves, to ultimately take a view on whether NAMA has indeed been such an appropriate and effective response. However, I would say, in finishing up, that any assessment of this should take account of the following points: that NAMA has delivered in respect of each aspect of our mandate as laid down in the Act; we quickly and effectively acquire the eligible assets from the banks and the acquisition and evaluation of those assets has been cleared without qualification by the C&AG and the EU Commission. As the CEO has said this enabled the Irish banking system to recognise and address upfront the loan loss difficulties it had created for itself. We have generated €25 billion cash in the past five years; we have paid our own way; and we have generated profits of more than €200 million in each of the last four years despite the constraints of a challenged property backed up for much of that period.

We have actively intervened in the property market in Ireland and contributed to the recovery now taking place. That intervention was strategically timed to minimise further damage, stimulate the market at the right time and take advantage of growing investor interest. I do believe we called it right. We have advanced over €1 billion into construction projects in Ireland in the past five years, and we plan and have the capacity to invest another €3 billion if required. And we have, to date, funded the construction of more than 1,900 new homes in Dublin. In fact, NAMA funded the construction of 40% of all new homes delivered in Dublin in 2014, a statistic, I think, which is telling in itself.

We have made significant progress in facilitating the timely delivery of grade A office space, retail, leisure and residential accommodation in the Dublin docklands SDZ and wider central business district, and we have the capacity to invest €3 billion in this and other capital projects all over Ireland. We have facilitated the delivery of 1,200 properties for social housing, and we will have delivered 2,000 by the end of the year. We are supporting 15,000 jobs and trading businesses directly re-linked to our loans.

However, most important, and I'll finish on this, we have made excellent progress on debt repayment. We are already two years ahead of target in repaying our senior debt; we're committed to repaying 80% by the end of next year; we're committed to repaying 100% by 2017-18, and we are committed to full repayment of our subordinated date. Finally, should conditions in the economy and in the property market continue to remain favourable, we are hopeful, based on our current projections, that NAMA may realise a surplus of up to €1 billion for the taxpayer by the time we complete our work. Thank you, Chairman.