John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Could I stop Deputy McDonald there for a moment? Mr. Conlan has stated he was not aware of the appointment of MERC. Members have just received the minutes of the meeting which took place on 25 March. They refer to the fact that the chairman informed the meeting that Mr. Nugent and Mr. Conlan had a preliminary meeting with MERC, a recruitment company, to discuss the available options and that a proposal was awaited from MERC. Moreover, a second meeting had been scheduled with another company, Amrop, which would be attended by the chairman and Mr. Nugent. Further on, the minutes go on to the recruitment sub-committee and state it was decided that a recruitment sub-committee should be formed to oversee the process of replacing the chief executive and the chairman, Mr. Nugent and Mr. Conlan were nominated.

That is in direct contradiction of what Mr. Conlan told this Committee of Public Accounts hearing earlier, in answering questions from a number of members. Frankly, it is not credible what Mr. Conlan is doing here today.