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

Minister, that is not an allegation. It is a matter of established fact that he was made aware of the fixers' fees. It is a matter of established fact that he failed to intervene. He has advanced, at least in part, a rationale for doing so. I am challenging it because, quite frankly, it does not hold water. In his opening statement he said that the board were to have a discussion and it was going to take advice from its financial adviser. I am just informing the Minister, in case he did not know, that they did not even tell their financial adviser, they say, about these fixers' fees.

Let me ask the Minister as question. He had a conversation with Mr. Frank Daly, he said to him "We're gonna talk to the board, we're gonna talk to the financial adviser." It seems to me that the Minister took, on face value, that the financial adviser was informed and came back and said that everything is okay. Given the seriousness of this conflict of interest, what did the Minister or his officials do to establish what care was taken by NAMA in respect of the process and to get under the skin of what has to have been very shocking news to the Minister, in respect of Frank Cushnahan?