Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's wisdom on that. To finish up, there is much criticism of the Department of Finance in the review by the Northern Ireland Committee for Finance and Personnel. I read some of the report and it is very critical of the Minister. It stated that "given the seriousness of the revelation by PIMCO, it is unclear why the Irish Government’s Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, did not intervene at this point, by exercising his general powers of direction over NAMA to suspend the sales process until matters were investigated fully". The committee also noted that:

Minister Noonan did not inform the Northern Ireland Executive of this development. In addition, the Committee regrets that Minister Noonan did not encourage NAMA to attend an oral hearing of the Committee. The Committee recognises that the Irish Government may therefore wish to clarify these issues.