Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When Mr. Cardiff was before the inquiry the question was actually put to him as to what was the purpose, and I think it was Senator D'Arcy actually at the time when he raised it, were the questions if he could afford some insight into why people in the room were asked the questions and why Brendan McDonagh and the NTMA were in the room next door and that question was never put to them. Mr. Cardiff then says:

Well, I can ... the reason the question was put was, I think obvious enough. The Taoiseach was about to ... was coming close, I suppose, at that stage at finalising his mind and other people were coming close to finalising their minds so I suppose it was a check of where we were around the room. As to whether, as to why Brendan was outside, well Brendan was outside the room because the people in the room ... the senior people in the room, didn't chose to bring him in.

Who were the senior people in the room?