Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is normal practice for a Minister to oversee all the activity of the State agency, including the fees etc. In the same way as I outlined that those fees would be reviewed at the end of the year, they can decrease at that stage. However, the fees are initially set prior to the work of NAMA commencing and it was only then that they realised the extent of the time and work that was going to be involved. For that reason they were increased with the proviso that they would be reviewed at the end of the year.

There is no need for legislation to set up the committee, which is why I am not accepting the recommendation at this stage.