David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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On all occasions the Minister was very clear that this had to be a fully competitive and open process. Mr. Frank Daly was here last week and he said: "There was a concern that a fully open sales process, which would by its nature take longer to conduct, would freeze activity in the Northern Ireland market for a period of nine to 12 months". He then went on to say that NAMA "did not believe that a fully open sales process would yield any additional benefit in terms of identifying other credible bidders". He conceded, in the context of one of the criticisms of the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding restrictions of marketing, that bidders had concerns that this was not a fully open and competitive process. Mr. Daly, the Chairman of NAMA, said that the agency "did not believe that a fully open sales process would yield any additional benefit". He added that NAMA was "very cognisant of the [political] damage that a fully open process could cause". How does that square with the direction or view that the Minister gave or the conversation he had in that conference call, that this had to be a fully open and competitive process?