Results 701-720 of 32,837 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I understand what the Minister is saying but Lazard was never informed and never given the total information about why PIMCO withdrew. Is that not correct? Was the Minister aware of that?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The Comptroller and Auditor General makes that point.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Is it right that the assurance given by Lazard on the sales process is a very qualified assurance?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, it is.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I am asking the Minister a question. Looking back now, does he think there was sufficient competitive tension in the process with two bidders left when Lazard could only give a qualified assurance? Looking back, does the Minister think there was sufficient competitive tension?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The Minister answered already that it was up to NAMA to say whether to share the information or not. That is an issue the Comptroller and Auditor General has raised that has not been dealt with. The Minister has come back and said that Lazard confirmed it did not and that it gave a qualified assurance. I understand from Ms Nolan that Mr. Reid only saw the third or fourth report. Is that...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The third and fourth. Did Mr. Reid have access to previous draft reports from NAMA?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Did Mr. Reid ever discuss it with NAMA?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Mr. Reid never discussed it with NAMA. There was just one other little thing I wanted to come back on. Just to put it in perspective again, which I did on the last occasion, the par value of these loans was £4.6 billion. It was reduced to £2.2 billion, so there was a major loss on that. It was then reduced to £1.3 billion or thereabouts. That represented only 3% of NAMA's...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Having listened and looked, it seems to me that a strategic decision was made like that. There is no evidence, which is what the Comptroller and Auditor General highlights. He is not making a decision, which the Department keeps saying. The Comptroller and Auditor General has not said once that a different decision should have been made or that NAMA should have held on. He will speak for...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Does Mr. Reid accept there is no evidence? Has he read the report?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Does Mr. Reid accept there is no evidence that alternatives were considered?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Are they set out in detail for us to see?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: So we cannot make up our minds and taxpayers cannot make up their mind. Is that right? That is what we are here about at the end of the day. We should not make something so hard that the ordinary person cannot read and understand it because they certainly can if we give the information. I take back the patronising way that comes across. We are here for the taxpayer. There is no evidence...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: He did not. It is a very long letter. I forget how many pages there are in it. There are five pages. They zone in, quite incorrectly, on the 5.5% because the Comptroller and Auditor General report does not choose 5.5%. This paper zones in on that and on the fact the Comptroller and Auditor General did not have expertise and so on. The Minister did not reply to it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The Minister did not reply to it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The letter clearly points out-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I am finishing. The letter says the Comptroller and Auditor General adopted a completely uncommercial stance in looking at the 5.5%, which is not accurate. NAMA goes on to say that if that was the case, it could not possibly sell the property at a reasonable price to comply with what was endorsed by the Minister, which was to manage the process of accelerating disposals with the target of...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The Minister may not have had but NAMA has clearly stated in the documentation that the 3% took up a disproportionate amount of time, which is the only reason I mentioned it. It was messy for it and it wanted out.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: It may well be.