Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

No, it is not. I think there is a probable loss. Everybody accepts that instead of working out if one sells through a loan portfolio, there will be some loss. NAMA's cashflows which we regularly examine for financial accounting purposes and which we examined in this case also are based on plans. These are things NAMA was expecting to do.

The point being made in the advice is mainly focused on what discount a purchaser will seek. On the 5.5% discount rate, it is about how NAMA should look at a future cashflow if it is working out assets. I did not see any advice specifically stating this was the kind of rate that NAMA should be using. The only place it is actually discussed is in the paper the NAMA executive put to the board in June 2013. It decided that it would continue to use 5.5% as its standard rate and it did use it when the issue came up in December.