Results 22,221-22,240 of 34,777 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) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: There is concern but the evidence says the opposite.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: The evidence to date does not confirm that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: That issue not clear, the Deputy should identify it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes, on one point.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I have one or two final questions. I thank Mr. Long for his time; we are almost finished. Issues arose during the process. Did the letter Lazard gave to NAMA at the end of the day deal with the two competitive bids that were on the table and on which Lazard was adjudicating or did it refer to the whole process that had potentially nine bidders because Lazard only received two? In Mr....

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Throughout the process.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Then tell me briefly, at the very end did Cerberus and Fortress know that there were only the two of them in the race?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: They would have known that at that stage.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: That is important. Why did Lazard never invite Fortress into the process? Fortress had to force its way in, through the Taoiseach's office and through NAMA head office. How did Lazard discount it, given that it was there at the very last minute? I would have said, in terms of asking Lazard a question, there are lots of issues but there was a real bidder out there which had to force its...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Okay, fine. We get the point. I have two brief questions in relation to the bidders. Reference has been made to non-disclosure agreements but in the conditions of participating in the process, were the bidders obliged to notify Lazard who their advisers were or were they obliged to notify NAMA? They were obliged to notify somebody.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: For the purposes of confirmation, did they notify Lazard before they submitted their bid that they had engaged Brown Rudnick and Tughans?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Long believes they should have. He said so already.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Long heard the gentleman from Cerberus here last week state there was a technical breach. This past week everybody has been concerned here about information that Brown Rudnick and Tughans could have possibly brought to Cerberus, that they might have breached some previous confidentiality agreement or information they gathered. They said they had no contractual difficulties in providing...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Long heard Mr. Neporent mention that here last week. There was a technical breach.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Okay. Would Mr. Long tell me what he thought Mr. Neporent had in mind?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: It was about the bid.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Okay. We will check that. I am merely saying, given Mr. Long was here to give comfort to NAMA, we now know that there was an actual breach admitted by the successful bidder.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: There were two breaches. First, he did not notify NAMA or Lazard that he taken on these people. The second potential breach was - Mr. Neporent stated it was a breach - that they shared the information that Cerberus had with these people who were not a party to the non-disclosure agreement signed by Cerberus. Does that concern Mr. Long?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Was Mr. Long surprised that Mr. Neporent made that comment here last week because that had not been in the public arena previously.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Okay. We will leave it at that. Mr. Long will be relieved. The questioning was a bit robust. Sometimes I will say to a witness before he or she leaves whether we on the parliamentary side found his or her evidence credible or disingenuous. I ask Mr. Long neither to take offence, nor to take the view that the committee has formed an opinion in relation to his evidence. We are merely...