Mr. Frank Daly:

If the Deputy is talking in real money terms, I must point out that the activities of NAMA to date have included taking the €74 billion off the balance sheets of the banks. One would have to wonder what state the banks would be in now if that had not happened. As Mr. McDonagh has pointed out, the mandated income which is now coming into NAMA, and therefore ultimately to the taxpayer, which was not the case before the debtors came into NAMA, include the assets recovered through asset searches totally €850 million. Social housing has benefited through the provision of sites to local authorities, and sites have been provided to the health sector and education. We are keeping a lot of those debtors going through ordinary working capital. That is keeping jobs intact and is growing jobs. The €500 million of investment put back into those debtors was to help them to grow and expand and to preserve, protect and grow jobs. It is fine to talk in money terms but there is another wider dimension to what NAMA has been doing for the past three years.