Mr. Brian Cowen:

I don't describe it as a design fault, in fairness. It was ... I mean, NAMA was set up to do a job. It was set up in a highly politicised atmosphere. All sorts of mal-intentions was being ascribed to it for the setting up of it. It has done its job well in terms of the mandate that it has. People can have their concerns about it as to how it operates, etc., etc., but, you know ... so it did it's job, and it was a job that needed to be done, and is being done.

Now, it took some time, it took a considerable amount of time. One of the reasons it took some time was that the knowledge, either the knowledge or the denial, in the banks, was such that what emerged ... no one in the banks was suggesting that when you do this process you're going to end up with a haircut of X, or whatever it was, none at all, it's not that ... it's not like that at all. But when they actually went in and did it, that's ... and that took time, but I agree that it was a ... that was a, if you line ... if you like, a disadvantage of that process, was the time it took. But, it wasn't helped by lack of co-operation either, or lack of knowledge-----