Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

The mandate of NAMA is to be commercial. The reality is that most of the foreign direct investment companies just want a premises. They want to know if they can get one and when it will be delivered. The issue to which Mr. Barry O’Leary referred is grade A office space in the central business district in Dublin. There are only approximately four or five buildings of 100,000 sq. ft. or more which are available. Mr. O’Leary tells me about some of the investors to whom he is talking in terms of those properties, but in other cases he does not say anything for reasons of confidentiality and because he is trying to negotiate. He might ask about a particular property an investor is considering to find out how soon it could be delivered. If the property is in NAMA, we work hard to deliver it. Mr. O’Leary is correct to point out that there are a few sites around those areas where people want to locate.

For instance, those involved in the IT sector all want to be located in the same area around Google or whatever the case may be. One would be looking then at deciding to build from scratch, and were one to do this, one must have the right planning. One issue is that the special development zone for the north and south docks is crucial in terms of allowing this. However, even if the aforementioned special development zone comes into being in May 2014 and if it is working properly, whereby one submits the planning application and it is fast-tracked, then the first building probably would be delivered in 2016 or early 2017. There is a certain lead-in time, and that is what Mr. Barry O'Leary is worried about in the first instance.