Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----more than anything else, and to get your comment upon it, Mr. Parlon. It says that:

Some of the more professional debtor connections tended to focus on particular sectors in which they had developed an expertise; this was particularly the case for debtor connections whose main asset ... was outside of Ireland. However, one of the [more] ...notable features of the acquired loan portfolio was that many debtor connections had borrowed against a diverse range of assets. It was not unusual to find, when all of the loan information was collated, that a connection had [an] exposure [on] a number of jurisdictions and ... a range of sectors including office, retail and residential, in addition to ownership of one or more hotels as well as undeveloped land interests.

He then goes on to say: "After NAMA acquired the loans, it was not always apparent to us what the debtor’s strategy might have been in assembling a range of assets which were so diverse by reference to sector and location; the obvious conclusion in some cases was that the compulsion to purchase more and more uncorrelated assets was entirely related to the almost unlimited availability of debt funding." If you could maybe ... if I could maybe to ask you, maybe, to comment on Mr. McDonagh's statement, but maybe to enlighten the committee as to whether the skill deficits that are indicated in terms of strategic management of assets was a problem at the time? And if that problem has subsequently been rectified by the CIF looking at its members now and saying, "Do we take a more strategic approach as to how we go about our business?"