Results 11,761-11,780 of 34,872 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: I will allow a brief question from Deputy Aylward.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: I have three brief questions for the witnesses.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: It was and the minimum price was reduced accordingly. That is in the minutes. Deputy McDonald asked about the reference to April 2013 in the minutes. On page 22 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, the sequence of events is set out. It states that on 24 June a letter from Brown Rudnick was received. It is clear that events had happened prior to that. That is the first date...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Did they never ask? The first letter they ever received stated that two of Brown Rudnick''s clients are interested in buying this portfolio, and the board members have never inquired as to who the two were. We know PIMCO was one of them. Would they not have inquired as to who the other bidder was in the interests of the Irish taxpayer? Did they ever get that second person into the bidding...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Fine.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: So was that firm bluffing?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Brown Rudnick was part of the process with PIMCO all along. Surely as part of that process there must have been some contact with Brown Rudnick as to who the other bidder was. The board members never inquired. Nobody seems a bit interested in somebody else that-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: I find that interesting. I asked that question because that has always puzzled me. I have two other brief questions. NAMA's minimum acceptable amount was £1.23 billion, and it got £1.241, £11 million over the figure, which is 0.89% over. NAMA has said several times that if it did not get £1.23 billion it would not have proceeded. Are the board members telling us at...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: The board members might have gone into further rounds of negotiation.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: -----with the two remaining bidders.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: The board members are saying that at that board meeting it was high-wire stuff and they were a fraction of a percent over their minimum amount. It must have been a big relief to get that because it was high-wire stuff?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes. The board members did not want to let that offer go at that point.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes, in terms of the under-bidder, but the board members had only bidder over that amount-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: -----and they just about got it over the line in terms of the figure of £11 million.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: My last question relates to the board meeting we referred to earlier at which Mr. McDonagh was the only person who was physically in the room. The board meeting minute states that the meeting started at 4 p.m. and finished at 4.30 p.m. That sounds like a rubber-stamp exercise for such a big financial transaction. The board members were on phones at different ends of the country and the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: The meeting was 30 minutes in length. It was minuted. It was finished in fewer than 30 minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: Where? When, in March?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: No. The board members had meeting in the middle of March when they were told about-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: The board members had no meeting for over two and half weeks.