I am advised by NAMA that the total nominal or par value of loans acquired for a nominal consideration was of the order of €3.5bn. NAMA advises that there were a number of reasons why this occurred but that the main reason related to defective legal security, meaning that the security was not fully enforceable or, in some cases, entirely unenforceable as some were unsecured loans. In all cases where defective security was identified as a problem, it was NAMA’s practice to allow the participating institutions sufficient time to perfect security – this extended to a period of twelve/eighteen months in some instances. A zero or low acquisition value was only applied where protracted efforts by the original financial institutions to perfect security proved to be unsuccessful.