Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We now have another ten pages before us. Very soon, the pages from NAMA will exceed the actual report. The witnesses have not addressed one of the issues. They have simply zoned in again on the figures of 5.5% and 10% and said once again that the Comptroller and Auditor General had inappropriately used a figure. I am exasperated at this point because he will be coming back in due course to answer but from what we have read, he did not pick the figure of 5.5% out of the sky. He picked it from the NAMA board and minutes and has made comments and drawn conclusions that NAMA did not justify its decisions, did not show evidence for its decisions, did not back them up and did not look at alternatives. I will not waste my five or ten minutes going through all of that again but I have put it repeatedly to the different NAMA witnesses. I would have thought that at this point, if they were coming in with ten pages, they might go through chapters 3 and 4 and deal with what the Comptroller and Auditor General raised - the Project Eagle loan sale process, the other chapter concerning the basis for the decision for the decision to sell the Northern Ireland debtor loans and the conflict of interest. They are three major areas. I would have expected the witnesses to go through all of that. They have had five draft reports. They have had ample opportunity and we are now at the end of the October and I do not see any of the concerns raised.

I will use my time to concentrate on the conflict of interest. Which member of the witnesses' delegation would have been present when the phone call with Pimco took place?