Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Nobody disputes the official minutes.

NAMA came within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act some time ago. What obligations does this place on it to retain records? To put it simply, Deputies would be alarmed if, when dealing with a Department, for example, the Department of Health or the Department of Social Protection, they were told that the notes on how the Department arrived at a decision in a case were not retained or if the chief appeals officer in the Department of Social Protection stated that notes were not kept on how a decision was arrived at. One would expect public bodies to be able to demonstrate how they arrived at a decision, even though the final decision is the final legal decision. Does Mr. Daly understand that we, in our daily work, can often get behind the final decision because when we challenge how a decision was arrived at, the Department is able to produce the record? That is the reason we were surprised that a body as large as NAMA was operating differently from the other public bodies with which we deal.