Mr. Tom Parlon:

Well, certainly, we didn't have the competencies within the CIF to examine an alternative to NAMA, and, clearly, the Government would have expended very substantial consultancy fees with ... originally with Dr. Peter Bacon, and with other experts, at massive expense to set up that new model. So we sought outside ... we got some advice, we decided upon Lombard Street finance, a London-based outfit. They came over, we gave them some terms of reference to look at NAMA, to see the particular model that was being laid out, how effective that might be, what the implications were going to have on the industry, and so on. They went along and did the report. As soon as we got the report, we looked at it ourselves. We immediately forwarded it on to the Minister for Finance, to his senior officials, and to the NAMA people at the time.