Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

NAMA has a very difficult job to do and we do the job to the best of our ability. The market was in a very difficult place for a couple of years. Ireland was in a bailout and it was very important we put our shoulder to the wheel. NAMA was part of getting our debt repaid to get us out of the bailout and it was transformational in getting Ireland back into the debt markets and able to raise funding itself rather than being reliant on institutions such as the IMF.

There is instant media now, so anything that is said here is reported around the world in seconds, be it good or bad. In the overall scheme, people whom I meet and who are buying assets in Ireland and in other jurisdictions which have bad banks, rate NAMA as an organisation which is performing very well and is ahead of schedule in terms of the targets it set for itself in 2010. Comments around Project Eagle are not helpful but we are very sure we did nothing wrong. I am very proud of the people who work in NAMA. The board works very hard with us and we do our best for the taxpayer. When NAMA has done its work it will, I think, be seen to have done its job very effectively, having come from a very difficult place at the outset.