Results 22,461-22,480 of 34,729 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) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I propose that the letter be specific. I put it into the public record today because NAMA's evidence has been on the public record. We will write back to NAMA and ask it whether it agrees with the contents of each paragraph. Where it comes to a paragraph on which it disagrees, I want NAMA to explain where it disagrees because at the end of our work we will have this on the record and if we...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: In fairness to Mr. Stewart, PIMCO quote him a couple of times.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I want to say this in order that members will remember. Mr. Alan Stewart is a senior divisional solicitor with NAMA and he was before the committee recently.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: In light of the fact that we want to follow up information, we wrote to Fortress recently because it was the only bidder left standing with Cerberus. We have written to Fortress asking a couple of issues, namely, how Fortress became aware of sale of Project Eagle, how Fortress became involved in the process, the basis on which Fortress made its bid, its rationale for making a bid before the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: We have to complete it. Fortress was the only bidder at the table at the end of the process other than the successful bidder. We need to hear from them. We have written to them in recent times.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Maybe the Deputy missed the very beginning of the meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: She had to go to the Dáil Chamber.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I read the letter into the public record. Mr. Rice stated that because of the National Crime Agency investigation, as well as investigations in the US, and to avoid taking any action which might prejudice the investigation, he had to respectfully decline the invitation to send a representative of PIMCO to the committee. However, he gave a very comprehensive reply to the letter.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: However, he has declined.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: In the interest of fairness, we read the letter into the record. I have not accepted or rejected a single sentence of it. I said we will write to NAMA and ask them paragraph by paragraph to agree or disagree with the letter. We might find 90% of it is agreed by both sides. Then we will have to adjudicate on their points of difference.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Tom Rice has declined.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Our issue is that he is from outside this jurisdiction. NAMA is within the remit of the Committee of Public Accounts. PIMCO is a company outside this jurisdiction. Tom Rice wrote from its London office, so we have an issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I agree.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: What does the Deputy propose?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: No.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: The essence of this is that Fortress, PIMCO and Lazard are all commercial organisations from outside the State. We have no powers of compellability, even if we choose to go down that route.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Until we get NAMA's response.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Then we will discuss it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: We can discuss any points of conflict there may be at that stage. We are nearly there.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: We will hold that. We will send a letter to NAMA within 24 hours asking for a paragraph-by-paragraph response, whether confirmation or disagreement. That is the PIMCO letter dealt with for today. We will come back to it. As I mentioned a short while ago, we are joined by Mr. Seamus McCarthy to give evidence to the committee today. We are also joined by Mr. John Riordan, director of...