Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the deputy First Minister and Mr. Mullan. On my initial reading of Mr. McGuinness's statement, it struck me that his was a very hands-off approach. It is like a parallel with his hands-off approach to the sale of Project Eagle. I find that very incongruent with the role of the deputy First Minister. With respect to Sinn Féin, among all the titles that are given to the role of deputy First Minister, in which I am interested, is joint First Minister with Mr. Robinson. However, this statement takes a very hands-off approach. I appreciate the difficulties that Mr. McGuinness has had with the DUP and the acrimony that is there, but the gap between the first paragraph in his opening statement and the second one struck me very strongly. It is a case of his stating that this was nothing to do with him, and throughout the statement he states that it was not his responsibility. There is an element of cherry-picking in this regard. On the one hand, he says he knew there were conversations going on and on the other hand, he did not seem to think that it was incumbent upon him to inform himself as to what was going on. I understand that there were biweekly meetings of the Executive and I do not understand why he did not inform himself at that stage or further question the DUP as to what was going on. I do not really accept that and I do not think it is responsible for the deputy First Minister, with respect to him, after getting a phone call on 14 January 2014, to have done absolutely nothing, as far as I can see, until 24 September 2014, when he says there was a cursory meeting with Dan Quayle and the Cerberus delegation. That is not good enough. I may not be correct but I do not think this hands-off approach helped anybody, least of all the taxpayer, and I think to put the responsibility solely on Peter Robinson is egregious and erroneous.

May I ask Mr. McGuinness-----