Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

Yes, I understand the Deputy's question. Obviously, since the lockdown in March 2020, there has not been very much demand for commercial office space. That is the reality. Any agent will tell you that. From our perspective, we are fortunate enough that any of the stuff we have left in our portfolio is quite small in the context of the 4.2 million sq. ft. In one particular building which we have pre-sold, there is about 70,000 sq. ft remaining at €170,000. In another building in which we are involved, a joint venture which is currently being built, there is about 70,000 sq. ft which is currently under construction and which probably will not complete until, say, quarter 1 of next year. In that context, we are very fortunate that we have a very limited exposure. We do not have 100% exposure because, effectively, there is the involvement of joint venture partners.

As for demand for office space, a lot will depend on how we all begin to handle Covid. Do we begin to return to offices? Will there be development of the hybrid working model? As for the demand that is out there, what we are seeing on the ground is that everybody is sitting on their hands - and you cannot really blame them - until they know whether this Covid thing is under control and how many people will be coming back to the office. The reality of Covid is that it probably brought forward the inevitable that remote working would become a reality by probably ten years. It forced companies overnight to have people working from home. The advent of technology, which has worked very well, meant that people could get on and do their jobs quite well, so there will inevitably be less demand for office space. If I were sitting in NAMA's offices in 2014 and 2015 looking at the docklands, which were not yet developed, and if Covid had happened then, that would certainly be a big concern. Thankfully, however, we are at the tail end of it, as far as we are concerned, and we have very little exposure left, which is a good thing for the taxpayer.