Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In so far as the criminal investigations are concerned, they are there because there are allegations of illegality and they are investigating those. There is the National Crime Agency, NCA, investigation in the UK and there is also a report to the Garda. That is where the wrongdoing is. There is no suggestion in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that NAMA acted illegally or improperly or, indeed, irregularly, which was the report in the newspapers after the leak. He certainly says what we know he says in the result, but he does not say that there was illegality on the part of NAMA. That is not the allegation. The purpose of what is going on here today, as I understand it, is to see if the conflicts which are apparent between NAMA and the Comptroller and Auditor General can be resolved.

If they can, they can and if they cannot, they cannot. There is such contention now that, as Deputy Aylward rightly put it, there are so many people thinking that something improper happened that it is probably in the public interest to have a judicial inquiry and that is the position that has been taken by the Taoiseach and the other party leaders.