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

Mr. Collison, in his opening statement, made reference to a reverse inquiry from PIMCO and said it was not a unique scenario. Mr. Stewart, in the e-mail he sent to Ronnie Hanna reflecting what transpired in the first phone call of 10 March, cites Mr. Tom Rice, European legal counsel for PIMCO. He states, at line 3, "[Mr. Rice] explained that the Project Eagle deal was brought to Pimco by Brown Rudnick".

I ask Mr. Stewart to help me with this. The impression has been given throughout, including in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, when one examines the chronology of events, that Brown Rudnick on behalf of PIMCO and A.N. Other - the identify of whom we are not sure - made contact with various parties, including Sammy Wilson, then a Minister in the North, and so on.

I think we worked on that supposition because it would make sense that PIMCO, which was in the business of loan acquisition and so on, would make its assessment, engineer the balance sheet, or whatever process it would go through, and then via legal channels initiate the approach as a reverse inquiry. I would think that to be a standard way for this to happen. However, I find it very interesting that it did not happen that way and that, in fact, Project Eagle was brought to PIMCO by a firm of solicitors - albeit high-powered ones that were well-tooled up and so on.

Did that strike the witness as interesting in the course of the conversation on that day? Mr. Hanna was with him.