Results 23,421-23,440 of 34,778 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) (6 Oct 2016)

Seán Fleming: The Deputy's last 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)

Seán Fleming: Deputy Connolly is well over time.

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)

Seán Fleming: It is the one in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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)

Seán Fleming: We are nearly finished. I will give Deputy Burke a moment because he will be the next speaker but has just returned to the meeting. There are a few questions for the departmental officials arising from the first round of today's meeting. The Department contacted the Comptroller and Auditor General about his report and said it had a couple of issues. Ms Nolan said earlier that the...

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)

Seán Fleming: So Ms Nolan is saying that the Comptroller and Auditor General meeting the chairman and chief executive of the board was not adequate and that she felt that those two men could not adequately represent the board? Why would she think those two people did not adequately represent the board and that there was a need for the Comptroller and Auditor General to meet other board members? I have to...

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)

Seán Fleming: In a way, Ms Nolan would support our decision to meet the board members?

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)

Seán Fleming: The Comptroller and Auditor General has produced special reports on several other State organisations such as the Dublin Docklands Development Authority regarding the Irish Glass Bottle site, Bord na gCon and the Central Bank and Financial Regulator, as well as a previous special report on NAMA. At no stage in any of those reports, did the Comptroller and Auditor General meet the boards 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)

Seán Fleming: Ms Nolan can understand the question.

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)

Seán Fleming: So Mr. Reid is essentially saying that the record keeping of NAMA board meetings did not adequately reflect how it arrived at the decision to set that price given the information and documentation presented to-----

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)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Reid is saying that there is quite a gap in the NAMA board information and records if it is not possible to see from the record how the board arrived at that decision.

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)

Seán Fleming: Fine. Mr. Reid is confirming 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)

Seán Fleming: I wanted to address that because Ms Nolan introduced it. She also said that the Comptroller and Auditor General did not meet Lazard. Would it be normal for the Comptroller and Auditor General to meet advisers to an organisation in respect of which he was to issue a special report? Given that Ms Nolan had a view on the Comptroller and Auditor General possibly meeting Lazard, does she think...

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)

Seán Fleming: It is a matter for us. A couple of other brief issues arise that I believe are significant. The Minister properly explained what I would call the financial context of the country. On exiting the troika arrangement, we did not have a safety net and had to get our ratings right. It was said there was an undercurrent such that the cashflow projections of the Comptroller and Auditor General...

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)

Seán Fleming: The issue I have is that if the witnesses are saying 2020 was not a valid option for consideration by the Department of Finance, where did they communicate this to NAMA? In summer 2013, the agency adopted the rate of 5.5%, with the possibility of some exceptions. There was a very minor qualification but the Department is essentially saying at this stage that, in light of our leaving the...

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)

Seán Fleming: Surely we are talking about winding down to 2020, not about staying going and winding down immediately at the end.

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)

Seán Fleming: Let me be helpful on that. I will ask the supplementary question first. The NAMA consideration in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report was based on the concept of workout. There was a difference based on potential cash receipts in 2017. NAMA, therefore, seems to have been accepting the 2020 workout at the time. Now it does not seem to have been an option.

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)

Seán Fleming: I have one last point on this. I will use a phrase the witnesses have used several times today. There is a reference in the legislation to dealing with the loans "expeditiously". One cannot reconcile saying "expeditiously" and saying everything will be kept until 2020. It was never envisaged in the legislation to keep the whole lot until 2020. As the witnesses have said here all day, the...

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)

Seán Fleming: We understand 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)

Seán Fleming: Is Ms Nolan saying the consequences of the sale collapsing were very serious?

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)

Seán Fleming: They were significant for the State given that we were just exiting the troika. It was our first toe in the water for international funds, almost. The NTMA was not yet borrowing and if the first big State transaction were to go wrong, it would reflect on us.