David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Moriarty for that. When Mr. Soffe was here last week, in relation to the board meeting, where the board had to make a decision about PIMCO, he said:

We took the view that PIMCO had to go. It was offered the opportunity to leave the process ... If it refused, it would have to be forced out... It could not stay in the process.

There is nothing in any of these recordings, or minutes, that would concur with that. Let me give Mr. Stewart some examples. I know he dealt with this with an Teachta Mary Lou McDonald, but I was not satisfied. On the same page, on record 3, it states, "[Tom Rice] TR said they did not want to continue in a process with any degree of impropriety for Pimco or NAMA and that Pimco was willing to withdraw completely." It continues, "[Ronnie Hanna] asked whether Pimco considered other options." Mr. Stewart then justified that by saying there was a previous call the day before and there would have been some discussion about this. Then the record states, "TR asked what options [that Ronnie Hannah was talking about] and [Ronnie Hannah] asked if it could be shaped differently for the arrangement fee to come out."

That does not sit with what Mr. Soffe said, which was that PIMCO had to go, that it was offered the opportunity to leave the process, and that, if it refused, it would have to go. Nowhere in any of these minutes that Mr. Stewart took does it suggest that PIMCO was forced out. It certainly does not confirm what was in the minutes, where they seem to want to acquiesce.

This was referred to by Mr. McEnery where he said: "Following the recent disclosure by PIMCO Legal and Compliance units of the existence of a success fee sharing arrangement ... NAMA's acquiescence [was sought by PIMCO] to this which NAMA had not acceded to." He went on to state, "PIMCO said it had these arrangements and asked if NAMA would acquiesce but NAMA said "no"."

From Mr. Stewart's legal perspective, because this is very serious for PIMCO, would it be fair to say that PIMCO acquiesced to staying in the process despite the existence of the success fee?