Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentations. I have a different assessment of the role of NAMA over the past period, close to a decade at this stage. I want to inquire along two different lines which I think probably relate to both Mr. Frank Daly and Mr. Brendan McDonagh. One is on the role of NAMA as an enabler of vulture funds, facilitating their control of large swathes of land and their lack of building on large swathes of land, thereby contributing to the housing crisis that we have, as well as their treatment of tenants. The second question is on the massive write-down of debt, which was not envisaged when NAMA was originally set up or at least was not publicly stated, to some of the richest people, mostly men, in Ireland.

On the first line of inquiry, which relates to Mr. Brendan McDonagh, I appreciate that he is responding to criticism. His response is to say that there is nothing NAMA can do and that it could not have put conditions into its sale of portfolios of loans or land to vulture funds insisting that houses would be built within a certain period of time, because that would be in contravention of its section 10 obligations under the National Asset Management Agency Act. Is that accurate?