Ms Ann Nolan:

Keeping everything to 2020 was not an option. The question is how quickly one winds it down. It is not just a matter of how quickly one winds down this portfolio. I totally accept that if one just examines this one, one could wind it down more slowly but NAMA had a whole range of portfolios and was under huge pressure to sell quantities of them. The issue from our point of view - it was a very serious concern, certainly in 2013 and probably into 2014 - was that on winding down, one would sell all the London stuff at the beginning only to find that the other assets could not be sold, thus leaving the agency with a whole lot at the end. This was said by many commentators. The opportunity to sell one big piece was a big positive for NAMA at the time. Consider the option of saying in respect of all those types of opportunities - I am not saying anything about Project Eagle in itself - that we will keep all the assets to the end and wind everything down gradually. Sales, by their nature, are bitty. If one wants to get rid of everything by 2020, one actually has to sell big bits and small bits when the opportunities arise.