Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I accept that. Let us look at the board. I will go to a different chapter, the one on the sales process, about which the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted a number of controls in dealing with the same problems. Page 72 deals with something of which Mr. Collison has some experience as he made a comment on the bidders. The report states that on 13 February 2014 "there was a national press report that PIMCO had approached NAMA". In other words, the story broke, despite NAMA's efforts, and was now open. The report continues:

The NAMA board held a normal scheduled meeting on the day the press article was published. Project Eagle was a planned agenda item. Although strict confidentiality had been a key project objective ... neither the media report nor the breach of confidentiality are mentioned in the Board minutes. The only evidence that the Board reconsidered its objectives for the process is that the minutes record that the Board gave Lazard and the NAMA Executive [the witnesses present] the flexibility to increase the number of bidders involved in the process 'if genuine credible interest arose'.

Is Mr. Collison saying that was a matter for the board?