Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The discount rate for the workout option is probably the focus of most of the disagreement, or most of the key disagreement, that the committee has heard. It has been represented that I came up with the 5.5% discount rate figure as a proposal. NAMA used a rate of 5.5% to discount its projected cashflows in the paper it gave to the board in December 2013. It chose that rate and used it throughout its paper. When, in the course of the examination, we asked NAMA why it used that rate, it explained to us that the board had confirmed as recently as June 2013 that this specific discount rate was appropriate for such exercises. The board paper notes that NAMA had a low cost of capital at the time.