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

That is Mr. Daly's account of matters. It would be misleading if I told him that I find that convincing because I just do not. However, in the course of this our examinations, we will get to the bottom of it.

I want to raise another matter. A couple of times Mr. Daly has, I think very disingenuously, suggested that the investigation carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General was positing what happened versus some hypothetical scenario. That is not actually true. What the Comptroller and Auditor General's report does is to take Mr. Daly's bespoke process on its own terms, as documented in his records, and make an analysis thereof. It is to miss the point entirely - and, again, is an attempt on Mr. Daly's part to, perhaps, manoeuvre himself out of the scenario - to suggest that the exercise carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General was what happened versus some hypothetical never-never land. That is not what this report does.