Professor Alan Ahearne:

Absolutely. The Minister did not put forward NAMA on the basis of a certain discount but gave an estimate of the figure. The actual discount could only be determined by European Commission rules after they had calculated it loan by loan. The extent to which the property market fell mattered as to the discount but NAMA would have been a good idea irrespective of whether the discount was going to be 20%, 50% or 80%. The arguments put forward for an asset management company never depend on there being a certain discount as the argument for an asset management company stands on its own two feet.

I was struck by what Professor Dirk Schoenmaker from the Duisenberg School of Finance said at a conference last month. He is one of the world's leading experts in banking. He is an independent and highly regarded individual who has also written a paper about the Irish banking crisis. On page two he writes: "The establishment of the bad asset agency, NAMA, serves as an international example of the successful management of bad assets." On page 24, he states: "The establishment of NAMA was instrumental in the successful management of the Irish banking crisis." That is his assessment