Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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That is fine. We are agreed on that. I have two points on NAMA. First, the original NAMA Act gave the agency responsibility for bank loans and the power to be a debt collector. However, the Act also envisaged a wider social responsibility and that is what I want to focus on. NAMA had control of huge swathes of development land all over the country. It had access to money and could develop a lot of this land. In my opinion, NAMA failed in its wider social responsibility. It turned a profit of €5 billion. That was great and well done on that, but part of the Act was a wider social responsibility to build more houses. Does Mr. McDonagh not feel the agency concentrated too much on debt collection and the bottom line and failed in delivering houses? I am not saying it is the full reason we are in the situation we are today, but does he not agree that failure of the social side of the NAMA Act is a factor?