Mr. Brian McEnery:

First, as a board, we were planning to continue to work out the assets on a piecemeal basis. However, it is important to set that in context. In the section 227 report, up to 2012, it was stated:

The availability of this capital, the low rate environment and the positive investor disposition towards Ireland creates a [significant] opportunity for NAMA to capitalise on this interest.

In addition, the IBRC process provided successful acquirers with the critical mass to establish and invest in local servicing platforms, increasing their capacity and appetite for further acquisitions.

That section 227 report goes on to state: "As long as these market conditions do persist, there is an opportunity for NAMA to sell [large] portfolios into this demand more quickly than would have been predicted as recently as mid-2013." Clearly, what the Department's own section 227 report is saying, which quite frankly was on foot of some of the work being done around IBRC, is that a market was emerging for larger portfolio purchases rather than working out the assets asset by asset, folio by folio. That is true, and that is what the section 227 report states.