Mr. Frank Daly:

That is not the premise behind the inquiry. The inquiry has terms of reference which are quite broad but which will look at that issue. During our extensive discussions at the Committee of Public Accounts and with the Comptroller and Auditor General it seemed to us the premise was that we should have held onto the portfolio and sold it piecemeal. I still wonder who would want to sell such a portfolio piecemeal in Northern Ireland right now, after Brexit.

I do not want to get into the commission of investigation today as it would be inappropriate. We made our points quite forcefully and at length at the Committee of Public Accounts, over the course of several hearings. We will co-operate with the commission of investigation and we welcome the fact that one of its terms of reference is to avail of appropriate commercial and financial expertise. We welcome the transaction being looked at. There were several things in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and other things came to prominence later about who had held meetings and so on, but the key finding of the report that there was a probable significant loss by NAMA has never been accepted by us. We did not accept it then and, without intruding on the commission of investigation, we do not accept it now. We will argue that position before the commission and will provide it with every piece of material we have and for which it asks.