Results 21,661-21,680 of 27,087 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Did Mr. Rowntree think that was a bad move on NAMA's part? Would it have been useful, if they had?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: What I am trying to do here, and what we must try to do as a committee, is join up the dots and what the Comptroller and Auditor General also tried to do, through timelines and through processes and procedures, was join up the dots. I merely want to look at the established facts, talk Mr. Rowntree through those and see are we are on the same page. Obviously, we had the establishment of the NIAC.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Mr. Rowntree was one of those appointed to that-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: -----as well as Mr. Cushnahan. They were two of the external members appointed. Mr. Rowntree said he wanted to be a member because he wanted to bring his own experience. He was excited about the opportunities this presented in relation to shaping the North, housing and all of that, and I accept all of that. The University of Ulster study, Mr. Rowntree says, was a land development model...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: The study offered a vision. Mr. Rowntree said it offered a way forward, and it was based on assets as well.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Did Mr. Rowntree also then say that it would be gold dust, and certainly valuable, for somebody who would be looking to put together a portfolio of either assets or loans, and if he or she had that information he would have a smile?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: It would have been gold dust.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: It has real value. As the University of Ulster survey was being examined by the NIAC, at some point we had the approach by PIMCO to NAMA. It was on the basis of a short and exclusive process that shifted from what was the thrust of the University of Ulster survey and where it wanted to go to NAMA's established policy in relation to how it was going to dispose of the assets to a loan sale...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: But there was a switch. What I am saying is the switch initially came from the PIMCO approach. The PIMCO approach was that PIMCO wanted a loan portfolio sale.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Then we had a process which was opened up to a number of bidders and the Comptroller and Auditor General is critical of whether that was an open and competitive process. In fact, Mr. Daly, when he was here, stated that it was not as open and competitive as it could have been because of political pressures, but we will leave that to one side. We then had the Project Eagle portfolio and it...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: I am merely establishing the facts in terms of what happened. We then had the Project Eagle.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Exactly. Then we had the Project Eagle portfolio. What we then had was the emergence of success fees.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Those success fees involved one of those people who had access to the information that Mr. Rowntree said was of value.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Who would have had access to what Mr. Rowntree described as valuable information.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: That information potentially would have contextualised a model of a portfolio of that size as well, would it not? That University of Ulster study information that would have been given talked about land assembly analysis and the data, not only on sites but on planning and residential need, information on banks, etc. It would have contextualised a model that then emerged from PIMCO and was...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: We do not know whether that was breached but what we know is that-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: I understand that. I will not speculate on whether it was breached or not, but what I am trying to establish is the facts and the timelines. What we know is that, whether there was a breach in that area or not, one of the external members of the committee was in line for a payment from PIMCO, which was one of the bidders in the process. That is what we know. That has been established.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: Then it became, as the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, said last week, an accepted corrupted process because of that and we know that PIMCO eventually withdrew from the process because of the presence of the success fees. Given that it moved from a solely commercial process to a potentially corrupted process, if Mr. Rowntree was a member of the NAMA board or if he was the chair of NAMA,...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: We know from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that assurances that should have been sought were not sought and assurances that should have been given were never given. That is the entire point of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. They never were sought and they were never given.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

David Cullinane: I am asking Mr. Rowntree's opinion as a former board member. Given what it then knew and what we now know, does Mr. Rowntree consider the decision of the board to continue with the process regardless was the best way forward?