Mr. Martin McGuinness:

Our concern, outside of my personal concern from the beginning, was the very real prospect of the Northern portfolio ending up, for want of a better word, in the wrong hands. There could have been a fire sale which could have had a dramatic impact on our economic situation in the North. From my perspective, whenever we have dealt with this situation in the way we have, all I can do is express my total dissatisfaction with how it was handled. Quite clearly, if we had been as involved in the process as others were, we would have been more able to have come to our own conclusions about all of that.

Regarding the issues raised by the committee that money was lost, I am not making the allegations. I am quoting an allegation made by Deputy Mick Wallace. I am not going to get involved in the debate between the Comptroller and Auditor General and NAMA. I read The Irish Timesand watch RTE, so I am as well tuned into all of that as anybody around this table. That is a matter for them and they will have to work that out. The Committee of Public Accounts will have to make its own decision.

From my perspective, my concern centres around the fact that there was a process which was going to impact on the taxpayer in the South as well as impacting on our economic circumstances in the North through the prospect that there would be a fire sale. Looking at the note of the conference call between Peter Robinson, me and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, it can be seen that I was very circumspect during the course of the meeting due to the fact that I had not been involved in conversations that I knew had to be going on in the background but of which I was not being made aware. The phone call was one I approached with caution due to a lack of knowledge. It is not due to any concern about Michael Noonan being involved in wrongdoing or even Peter Robinson being involved in wrongdoing or even Frank Cushnahan or others. It was just from the perspective of not having the knowledge. Never at that stage did I cast any aspersions on anybody on that and certainly not on Michael Noonan. I have my own views about what was happening in the North. I would be an idiot if I did not have a view that PIMCO was saying people demanded £16 million from it. That is a massive amount. What is that all about? Then there is the money that ended up in the Isle of Man as a result of the Cerberus deal.