Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are clearly not going to have a meeting of minds on this issue. I think the officials have done the Department a disservice in recommending that approach to the Minister. More to the point, I think they have done a disservice to taxpayers and citizens who are concerned by this turn of events in all of its dimensions.

I want to put that on the record, as it was most unwise. It was, indeed, more unwise of the Minister to take such bad advice from the Department.

Let us get back to the issue of visibility and the original relationship framework to which the Department has alluded consistently in its account of events. What in the original relationship framework precluded the Department from having a presence on the board, receiving minutes and being more deeply involved or understanding what was happening in Anglo Irish Bank and, subsequently, IBRC?