Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

NAMA has always looked to fund residential development where a debtor could justify that it would make a commercial return. The Deputy will recall that house prices fell by 30% after NAMA acquired the loan portfolio. Houses could not be built because the cost of building them could not even be recovered. Under the legislation passed by the Oireachtas, NAMA is not allowed to do that. From 2013 onwards, some of NAMA's debtors who were house builders said there was a bit of growth in the market again and asked for funding to build houses on a small scale to sell them. People forget that aspect.