Mr. John Mulcahy:

Deputy Aylward has raised an important point. NAMA never had the option. The committee should remember that NAMA is not an investor. NAMA was using money that it had to repatriate. We had to get this money back. It did not belong to us. We had to give it back to the European Central Bank. PIMCO was coming in with new money to invest in Northern Ireland. We were relinquishing our investments. We never had the option or luxury of working out the assets. Earlier, Deputy McDonald referred to our original strategy. Our default strategy, in cases where we could do nothing else, was to work out the assets. That was never a preferred strategy. We never had the option.