Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

The Act is the Act. People can say many things about the legislation but I believe section 10, which refers to the best achievable financial return, has been a very good guide and a very good standard bearer for the NAMA board in terms of setting out its job and what it is supposed to do. The word “expeditiously” was inserted by the legislators. The legislation passed through the Oireachtas. We had to take account of that. Bearing in mind the word “expeditiously”, it is not stated that everything must be sold on day one; it just means that one does not hang around. Ireland was heading into bailout territory even when the NAMA legislation was being dealt with in 2009. The debt was spiralling very quickly. When the legislation was passed, I was called in by the then Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, and he said to me that there was a big problem, that the legislation was passed and that the Oireachtas expected NAMA to get on with it. He said, "Just do the job properly and do not make the problem worse." That was his direction to me at the time. He said, “Do not make the problem worse; there are enough problems in this country. Get on with it.” I have tried to live by that in terms of trying to make sure we come out the right side.