Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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Every one of us wants the State to end up with the maximum return. The criticism of some of the early sales in regard to NAMA was that many of us felt it was a fire sale in that properties were sold when the market as at rock bottom as opposed to when we had a rising market. In being critical of that, we equally need to argue that we need to get the maximum here. It is a balancing act in terms of the cost and the rising cost of the liquidation and what can be realised from what remains. We do not have enough information to make that assessment. We have some generalities in regard to what is yet to be disposed of. It might be useful to get some sort of a quantum as to what is within each category such that we have a better idea. We need to also know what the net return is. I accept these can only be forecasts. This is the biggest liquidation in the history of the State. It is hoped we will never again have another as big as it. The criticism in recent years has been around the level of oversight. The Department has oversight in this regard. There is no committee of oversight, which was something that a former members of this committee constantly raised the need for in order that we could keep an eye on this process. A bit more information is needed regarding the various scenarios, including what is to be disposed of and the quantum in each of the categories yet to be disposed of. Without that information, we are only guessing at where the values might rise or be static. We need to get that information in the first instance. The net estimated return is the type of information that would be of value to us as well.