Mr. Willie Soffe:

We were brought under no pressure to sell in connection with Project Eagle. What the Minister said to the committee and what he said to us was it was important from Ireland Inc.'s point of view and its borrowings that the debt would be paid down by NAMA as quickly as possible. The Act asked us to deal with the assets expeditiously. The word "expeditiously" is used twice in section 10.

I recall the Minister saying three things when he spoke to the board. One was that where there is the opportunity, debt should be paid down as quickly as possible. Second, he told us to see what we could do to deliver housing. As a result, we developed a programme to deliver 20,000 houses by 2020, which was a huge increase for us. We had an aim up to then of 1,500 a year. Now we had to push it to 4,000 per annum on average. The third point he made was on the docklands strategic development zone, SDZ. We needed commercial development and housing there and we were to work with the agencies involved, apart from ourselves, to deliver there. He spoke-----