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

I thank the Chairman and welcome back the gentlemen. It is not their first appearance before this committee and I have a sense that it will not be their last visit.

I am struck, in the first instance, at the very trenchant criticism levelled by NAMA at the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is in marked contrast to the approach taken by that office at our hearing this morning. If I heard Mr. McDonagh correctly, he fell just slightly short of accusing the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of not just incompetence but almost malice. He said that things were not put into a proper market perspective and he asked why not, as though there was some connivance on the part of the Comptroller and Auditor General to produce a critical report of NAMA. Mr. Daly said that NAMA's decision to criticise was not taken lightly but it was certainly taken very swiftly because NAMA was out like a rocket once the report was issued to decry it from a height. Does NAMA have a difficulty with oversight? Is it simply the case that when that oversight produces a criticism that NAMA is resentful?