Results 181-200 of 7,211 for speaker:Peter Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Therefore, there are meetings that they do not attend. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Yes, I will address one more very important point. Paragraph 2.4 of the report shows the carrying value of the assets held in Project Eagle at 31 December 2013. It indicates a loss of 13% on the sale proceeds. Paragraph 2.4 also shows that in some cases there was a difference of in excess of 30% in the case of participating institutions which were managing the loans. In terms of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I know that concern was raised by Mr. McCarthy's office. That is the point I am trying to make. The loss has obviously been booked and raised, but in terms of the process and procedures and the significance of it, there was no concern raised about it by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: And potentially additional expertise.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. I will first focus on the change in strategy to group all of the assets. Obviously, it was the biggest loan portfolio sale NAMA had undertaken at that point and it was a huge change in strategy to group all of the assets. I note from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that there is no detail of the other options discussed...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: The Comptroller and Auditor General is very clear that there is no evaluation of other options in the board minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Either there is or there is not. It is black and white. We are getting mixed reports about tenders and who did or did not do something. It is very clear that there either is or is not an evaluation of other options in terms of this strategy.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Does Mr. Daly accept that this puts the Comptroller and Auditor General in a difficult position? I am not speaking for him but if the discussions NAMA had are not outlined clearly in the minutes it is difficult to formulate a detailed response to that. The processes are not in place, and this is consistent throughout all of this. The record keeping for major decisions appears to be very poor.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: In fairness, I am not discussing the discount rate at present. My question is specific. The witness says there was discussion about whether these should be sold individually or in bulk. Is that documented at board level in the minutes?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Is there a "Yes" or "No" answer to that?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: To be fair, I am familiar with cash flows. I am an accountant by trade. I wish to clarify the board minutes. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report is very clear that no evaluation of other options was discussed, in terms of the strategy. The witness is saying that, detailed in board minutes, options were discussed. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Is it "Yes" or "No"?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: So it is in the board minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I cannot get evidence from talking to the witness that it was documented, so I will move on. I refer to evidence to support NAMA's assertion that a fractious relationship was building with its Northern Ireland debtors. What is meant by that and what evidence is there to suggest it? These were non-performing loans in the majority of cases. What is meant by the difficult or political...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I will move on to Lazard and its engagement with NAMA. This obviously is a very narrow focus in my view, just from reading the report, but in terms of NAMA's engagement with it in terms of the initial briefing it gave, there does not seem to be written evidence of it. Why is this?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Just to be clear because I am getting confused on this, does NAMA have a written brief that it gave Lazard? It is a "Yes" or "No" answer.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: But there is no explicit brief between both.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Again, what we are hearing back and forth is that a lot of discussions were allegedly taking place, but it is very hard for us looking in to assess them when there seems to be a huge lack of documentation to back up these discussions. It concerns me that the record-keeping throughout the whole process seems to be very poor. I do not think that is acceptable for such a high-level...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: In terms of Project Arrow, the report contains a comparison in terms of the information that was available to it. I think there were 2,800 documents for 850 properties for Project Eagle in comparison to 22,000 documents for 1,900 properties for Project Arrow. The whole information process seems to be very exclusive from that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Was there a reason for that?