Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

In terms of records, all important records will be preserved at NAMA and transferred to the NTMA, so they will be held by the NTMA. I do not think there should be any concern about that. While the Senator is talking about the LDA, from looking from the outside at the LDA, the agency is involved in doing many things. People do not mind if they get a social or affordable house from the LDA because they just want a house.

Building housing or apartments is a very risky exercise for anybody, whether a State or commercial entity. Based on my experience, my advice would be that you have to be up early in the morning and be clued in. In terms of controlling costs, the works programme and who has been appointed as a contractor, you have to make sure you are on top of these and do not have cost overruns. Taking examples of State projects where there have been cost overruns, you really need the right people. My advice would be, in any State project, that you need the right people with the right skill set to make sure a project is delivered to a realistic budget and on time and that you do not get hit with extra costs that you did not anticipate or that could have been avoided. That would be my strong advice.