Mr. Brian Rowntree:

I think it is because the landbank in Northern Ireland was different from the landbank in Ireland. Those in the South had an overhang of housing and greater opportunity sites than we had. There was going to be a slower burn. It might have had the intention to go for a quick fix on this one. It takes a different strategic approach to work the Northern Ireland landbank out. That would have been taken as read. It is a mixed bag of tricks in many ways.

Also on the political side, yes, there was political angst regarding an immediate fix. However, we were not going to get an immediate fix around this. There never was going to be an such a fix. I pose the question: if there had not been a NAMA, where would the Northern Ireland landbank have been today?