David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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To move to the discount rate. I think NAMA has put out a lot of misinformation on this because it seems to peddle the line that the Comptroller and Auditor General in his report was making a claim that the 5.5% discount rate should have been applied and not the 10.5% which was what it calls the market rate. That is not accurate. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report says that the information that the board had at the time, I think it was November or December 2013, was that the work-out rate based on the sale of the assets would have realised €1.49 billion. There are staff of the Comptroller and Auditor General's office here. He says then there was a shift in the sales strategy. it moved from an asset sale to a debtor sale. Of course when that decision was made NAMA would look at the market value. Where is the evidence presented to the board to suggest that a loan sale was the way to go? What documentation was presented to the board at that time?

I understand from what the Comptroller and Auditor General said that the only information available was the standard 5.5% and that was based on working out the assets at the time. That would realise a return of €1.49 billion. That is real time, not hindsight or foresight. When a decision was made to change sales strategy what documentation, evidence or expert opinion was given to suggest that a 10% discount should be applied?