Results 681-700 of 6,412 for speaker:Gerald Nash

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Trade Promotion: Discussion with American Chamber of Commerce Ireland (Resumed) (1 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: I welcome Mr. Cotter and thank him for his presentation. I apologise for arriving late but I read his statement. It is fair to say that Ireland and the USA, from a business, social and cultural perspective, as well as a range of other perspectives, have a remarkably positive relationship, and long may it last. I was encouraged last week by some of the comments made by David Marcus of...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Agreed.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: I welcome Ms Moylan, Ms Tallon and their colleagues. I must admit I am on the same page as Ms Tallon with regard to completing this circle. I thank Ms Moylan for being as frank as she possibly can be, under the circumstances. We will not be able to complete the picture in the absence of evidence from other individuals named. At our previous effort to examine these issues, I had requested...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: The final figure was €127 million, which is the statutory limit of what the authority could conceivably borrow.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Who was the Minister at that time?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Ms Moylan and the Minister did not engage directly on 24 October.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: I ask Ms Moylan to correct me if I am mistaken but I believe she expressed regret in her statement that she had not been in direct discussions with the Minister on that particular occasion. Hindsight is 20-20 vision. Does Ms Moylan still regret that she did not have that discussion with the Minister, even though, as far as she is concerned, she was complying with the general approach taken...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: In circumstances like this, is there not a conflict between the fiduciary responsibilities of a company director, and the company director's responsibility to the shareholders and to the board, and the role of a public servant, particularly a public servant who has direct line of responsibility for the areas that are being considered by that company?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Did Ms Moylan ever feel conflicted?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Why not?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: In regard to the tender bid and again I refer Ms Moylan to the minutes of the incorporeal meeting of 24 October, point 8.1 of which states: "However recognising the expertise and experience of Bernard McNamara and if he had some additional information which convinced him that the bid should increased, then the Board agreed that Mr. McNamara could be allowed to increase the bid as he saw fit...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: In the context of Ms Moylan's role in the Department as a member of its senior management team, she would have been aware of concerns about the property market and of the knowledge the Department would have had that the market was overheating. There are indications in the documentation we have to suggest that advice was offered to the board that the market was overheating. One would not...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: I refer to the references to the declarations of interest in the minutes of the meeting, which have been comprehensively covered by Deputy Donohoe. The position on that appears bizarre and incredulous. It is akin to Lannigan's Ball where Sean FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw stepped in and then stepped out, and Declan McCourt stepped out again. We identified that and discussed it at a previous...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: That is not the way we see it and how the public would see it. How does Ms Moylan feel about it?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: We know now that they were not the entrepreneurial geniuses they led us to understand at the time but in any event, as Ms Moylan correctly pointed out, these are people who were considered to be experts in the area and their record spoke for itself. They were people with considerable experience and expertise and at that time had a long and considerably successful record in property...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Would Ms Moylan say the staff of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, and perhaps other board members, were somewhat in awe of some of the individuals such as Sean FitzPatrick, Lar Bradshaw and others because of their expertise - quote, unquote - in the area. Has Ms Moylan ever experienced that feeling with regard to those individuals or has she identified that feeling in the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Reference was made earlier to the 2010 code of practice for public servants on various boards, which is a governance structure, but is it correct to say that does not apply to commercial semi-State organisations?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: It is still the case that the protocol has not been updated to include commercial semi-State companies.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: Absolutely.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed) (2 May 2013)

Gerald Nash: That is very important. We appreciate the witnesses' evidence today and the circumstances around that. It would be valuable if others would make themselves available to allow us complete that circle. The witnesses should not be disadvantaged by virtue of their public office, which requires them to appear here when others who are not required to attend can decide not to appear. I...