Results 2,601-2,620 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

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)

Michael Noonan: I have no evidence that there was a leak of a document actually. I read the piece, I believe it was in The Irish Times- is that what the Deputy is referring 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)

Michael Noonan: Certainly someone had knowledge of the finding about the sum of money which the Comptroller and Auditor General would put in his report. The piece also said that the Comptroller and Auditor General had found irregularities in the way NAMA had proceeded. That was untrue. Effectively, the only accurate bit of the leak was the sum of money, which was close to €200 million. I do not...

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)

Michael Noonan: I cannot help the Deputy on that. As I said, the Department of Finance can account for all documents.

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)

Michael Noonan: As that is a departmental question, my officials will answer 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)

Michael Noonan: There was a legitimate concern across parties in the Northern Executive that the impaired property and loans books in Northern Ireland would continue to be a drag on the Northern Ireland economy in the same way as when we had no property market in Dublin because impaired assets were a drag on it. Naturally, the Northern Executive was raising this issue. NAMA, which was outside 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)

Michael Noonan: Yes, but I-----

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)

Michael Noonan: This is rather speculative by me because I am not a part of the Northern Ireland Executive-----

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)

Michael Noonan: -----and I would not have any insight into its documents or meetings.

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)

Michael Noonan: No.

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)

Michael Noonan: No. The reason for the change was obvious. The Executive was nervous of a fire sale that might damage the Northern Ireland economy when there was no obvious way of selling the whole portfolio. When a major international property company emerged and approached the Northern Ireland authorities with an interest in the whole portfolio, it seemed to changed the situation. As I understand it,...

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)

Michael Noonan: As to giving an insight into what the thinking was among members of the Northern Ireland Executive, I cannot help the Deputy, but I could advise him 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)

Michael Noonan: What I had been going to say before the Deputy interrupted was that, if he wants an insight into the Northern Ireland thinking at Executive level, I understand that the deputy First Minister is appearing before the committee next week.

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)

Michael Noonan: It is also worth putting on the record that, from where I sat as finance Minister of the Republic, there was no difference of opinion between the political parties in Northern Ireland and there was no difference of opinion between the First Minister and deputy First Minister.

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)

Michael Noonan: When I was invited to meet the then First Minister, Mr. Robinson, at Stormont, it was scheduled to have the deputy First Minister there as well. He was not there on the day. When I met him subsequently, he apologised. He said he had to attend a funeral and apologised for not being there. However, he never expressed to me that the views expressed by Mr. Robinson were not his views. There...

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)

Michael Noonan: I was not aware until very recently that the same advisers were engaged by Cerberus as had been engaged by PIMCO.

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)

Michael Noonan: Ms Nolan, were you aware?

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)

Michael Noonan: It was very disturbing and very unusual that PIMCO's compliance department had discovered this in the United States and it advised PIMCO of the risk it was undertaking if it proceeded. PIMCO informed NAMA and in the ensuing conversation, PIMCO decided to withdraw. Then NAMA decided there was "sufficient competitive tension", to quote the phrase used, and it was advised by Lazard that there...

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)

Michael Noonan: That is not a contradiction. If NAMA pushed PIMCO off the table, it pushed it off the table to withdraw.

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)

Michael Noonan: The engagement tends to be NAMA providing me with information which it considers to be necessary. Under the Act, the powers of the Minister for Finance are to ensure that the purposes of the Act, as decided by the Oireachtas, are delivered. However, the Minister is excluded from getting involved in the commercial activity of NAMA.

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)

Michael Noonan: I must develop this point. There is a background and it arises from what Deputy Alan Kelly said. At the end of 2013, we exited the bailout. We were trying to get back into the market to get the moneys which we had previously received from our colleagues in the Europe Union and the IMF. NAMA was funded by NAMA bonds-----