Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed)

10:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would go so far as to say that there is no point in having these lovely pages in NAMA's fancy report about all of its committees, including the risk management committee, if something gets referred to the board first and the committees have no involvement in the matter. Mr. Ellingham gets my point.

I seek clarification of a couple of points in the opening statement. I will not repeat the entire reference, but the last line on page 3 mentioned the 10% issue. Will the witnesses send us the documentation that the board had on this matter from before the process completed?

I have dealt with the issue of the minimum price, but I am concerned about the issue of competitiveness.

The point is made on page 6, in the second paragraph - the witnesses were very insistent on this point - that: "The NAMA board would not have continued with this sale if the sales process was not competitive. Lazard was categoric in advising the board that the sales process was competitive throughout." It was very important that there be competitive tension in the process. Two years on, however, three board members are telling me that they cannot be sure whether Cerberus and Fortress were made aware that PIMCO had withdrawn. How can they, as three board members, be satisfied that there was a competitive process when they did not know what the state of knowledge of the two parties remaining in the field was?

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