Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Noonan went on to make more general remarks on the question of the liquidity crisis, which was the main concern of the Government in late September 2008. I recall saying in that debate that we were going in deep. We were well aware that we were going into a system that required detailed examination and, therefore, the PriceWaterhouse Coopers' examination of the bank assets then took place. Deputy O'Donnell touched on that in his contribution. A significant amount of information was assembled in that regard, some of which was put into the public domain. However, much of it could not be put into the public domain because of its sensitive character.

Deputy O'Donnell raised the issue in the context of the recent operations of NAMA and the business plan now approved by the board. That is the business plan of NAMA. The one advantage NAMA had as against its predecessors was that it was building on the work PriceWaterhouse Coopers had done, on the work of the due diligence exercises which took place prior to the capitalisation of Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank and the abortive capitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank. In effect the due diligence led to the nationalisation rather than the capitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank. NAMA had the advantage of that work already being done and has been able to bore deeper as a result. It has also, of course, had the advantage of a statutory mandate and of statutory provisions in respect of disclosure by the institutions themselves.

See this speech in context