Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

I am satisfied about that. We did not have the luxury of hanging around when we had a €30 billion contingent liability with a €200 billion national debt. There was a directive from the Minister of Finance.

I want this contingent liability paid off. The NTMA is in the market trying to raise money and this is a big cloud hanging over us. We sold assets to pay off the contingent liability. If we could have chosen the assets that we wanted and just bought all the good assets on the first day rather than taking the mixed bunch of assets we got, it would have been great. Perhaps we could have had long-term investment and been well funded with no debt while being able to pick and choose over a longer term. However, they are all "ifs" and that was not the reality.