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

Let me help you, they did. They could not not have. Somebody had to know to inform the meeting. The board minutes state, "The NAMA Chief Executive advised that following a discussion with the Chairman [so that is the two] AR [that is asset recovery, Ronnie Hanna] had engaged with Cerberus to ascertain whether there were success fees payable and to whom". Then they discovered that there were and to whom they were to be paid.

Obviously none of the witnesses can be categoric as to when the chief executive and the chairman knew this information. That is an important point and let me tell them why. I put this to Mr. Daly at a meeting we had on 9 July 2015. I asked him whether he was aware of a meeting on 25 March 2014, so this was between the board meetings. The NAMA board was not meeting at this stage but I will tell the witnesses who was meeting. It was Peter Robinson, then First Minister in the North, Dan Quayle from Cerberus, Ian Coulter, managing partner of Tughans solicitors, and Simon Hamilton, who was the successor to Sammy Wilson as the Northern finance Minister. Mr. Daly said he had no knowledge that meeting with Cerberus had happened, but he also told me he had had a conversation with John Snow, who is the chairman of Cerberus. The witnesses are probably familiar with Mr. Snow's name. He told me that phone conversation happened sometime towards the end of March. I do not see in the minutes of the board meeting where the board was presented with this information. It was told a decision was needed on Cerberus and by the way it has these fees. To me, this is presenting the board with a fait accompli. That is how it reads to me. I do not see any record of him telling the board he had been talking to John Snow.