Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. McCarthy stated this morning that "there [may be] strategic and commercial reasons why NAMA might prefer an early loan sale" and that it is a business decision and not something he would comment on. In response to Deputy Burke, Mr. McCarthy said that once they went for that option, there was an immediate acceptance that there was going to be a bigger discount, so Mr. McCarthy is commenting in that respect on the strategy. On the point of view of the probable loss to the taxpayer, by going down that route, they are actually going to see a loss to the taxpayer. Mr. McCarthy made the statement that, by going another route instead of working through the process, they were accepting that the taxpayer was going to take a hit.