Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The staff of my office are career civil servants. We do not have market experience but we are the auditors of the Health Service Executive. We do not have experience of medical practice or the business of many of the entities we audit. The staff have built up experience over the years. Mr. Andrew Harkness who is responsible for the audit of NAMA and the oversight of this report has been engaged in the audit of public bodies for many years. He is also responsible for the audit of the NTMA, the Central Bank and is currently a member of the audit board of the European Stability Mechanism. Mr. John Riordan has many years experience of auditing. He was involved from the initiation of NAMA, both in the audit and in a special report we undertook in relation to the acquisition of loans and that included the valuation of those loans. Subsequently, we look at the process for the management of the debtors. He produced the progress report, under section 226 of the NAMA Act on all aspects of NAMA's activity. Mr. Tom Malone who was the senior auditor who had been on the audit and was moved to carry out the examination has a masters in strategic management. I do not believe that we were without relevant qualifications in respect of the work we were planning to do.