Mr. Martin McGuinness:

In respect of the way this was handled and even the communications between the Department of Finance in Dublin and the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson did not include me. It is, as the Deputy rightly said, a joint office and I do not believe this was respected during that situation. There are even communications from the Department of Finance and Personnel through Peter Robinson's office that talk about meetings with him. That does present problems. We are all here with the benefit of hindsight and thanks to the massive contribution made by Deputy Wallace in making all this public last year.

At that stage of the process, there was nothing in my mind apart from the irregularity with which this was being handled due to the bad relationship as a result of the reneging on the agreement and the meetings that were being established. There was nothing in my head that suggested that there was wrongdoing by anybody regarding what has since transpired - the allegation that £16 million was demanded of PIMCO or indeed the £7 million that ended up in a bank account in the Isle of Man. All of this was as much of a surprise to me as it was to anybody else. There were no bad thoughts in my head at the time of this business other than I thought it was highly irregular that the meetings that had taken place were handled in the fashion they were. I understood it from the DUP's point of view. Relationships were appalling, which presented a massive difficulty that lasted for quite some time until we reached the achievement of the Fresh Start agreement at the end of last year.