Results 2,621-2,640 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: This is very important. The banks were given NAMA bonds in exchange for the loan books they transferred to NAMA. The NAMA bonds were paying a very small coupon, although they improved the liquidity of the banks. Frank Daly and the NAMA representatives constantly attended troika meetings. The European Commission and the European Central Bank, under the NAMA Act, were constantly urging 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: It is very important that the committee is fully informed on that background.

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: A couple of points arise from the Deputy's question. There were a number of Ministers of Finance in Northern Ireland during the period, so the Minister the Deputy refers to is Mr. Sammy Wilson. He wrote to me and the committee has a copy of his letter among its documents. The committee also has an accompanying document which sets out in outline, if not in considerable detail, the proposal...

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 would not regard that as surprising because if one is looks at it from the perspective of an economic Minister in the North who wants to get the sector moving again, whether the developer is impaired by a loan in Belfast or a loan in Berlin, if he is impaired, he is impaired and he cannot get back into business. That is, therefore, the common factor.

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 not for me to look behind commercial decisions. It is a very good question but the Deputy should put it to NAMA, not to me because I cannot help her on that. As I pointed out in my speech, section 12 of the Act bestows the NAMA board with the powers to "sell or dispose of the whole or any part of the property or investments of NAMA, either together or in portions, for such...

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: None of 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: In the first instance, it is for the Comptroller and Auditor General to scrutinise the process and he has done so. Second, it is a matter for NAMA to answer the questions. However, section 12 says that the board is empowered to dispose of property for such consideration and on such terms as the board thinks fit. That is such a broad-ranging mandate that there was not a process that would...

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: Forgiveness of debt in any loan portfolio is a commercial decision and I was not involved in second-guessing commercial decisions. If one reverses the position and says that the Minister, if he has any doubts about a transaction, should intervene and stop it, if one had some kind of provision like that, it would mean I would have to sit beside the chief executive of NAMA every time there was...

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: First of all, as I have said several times, I have no commercial role in the activities of NAMA. Consequently, I would not know what its process was in disposing of one asset against another. I also think that section 12, which I read out, gives the discretion to the NAMA board to change the process in any particular sale. It is wrong to think that there was a standard process that was...

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: Will Ms Nolan comment on 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: I was made aware of it when the chairman of NAMA, Mr. Frank Daly, informed me that PIMCO was withdrawing and explained the circumstances of the PIMCO withdrawal. I have referred to that already. It was not a matter for me. The fees that were alleged to have been paid were on the purchaser side. They were not on the NAMA side.

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. It was on the purchaser side, not on the NAMA side and it was not in our jurisdiction.

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 disappointed that PIMCO had withdrawn because I had been briefed on the basis that things were going well and there could be a sale of the portfolio. I explained the reasons to the Deputy earlier. We were after coming out of the bailout at the very end of 2013 - this was March 2014 - and a lot of advice I got from eminent people was that we needed a precautionary programme to ensure...

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 ECB was putting on pressure but it was not putting pressure on us about Project Eagle. Even if one looks at the draft of the Act, it is mentioned twice that NAMA should dispose of the assets expeditiously. There was no question of the ECB or the troika underlining a situation where loan books could be worked out to 2020. The troika wanted expeditious disposal of the assets to take 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)

Michael Noonan: May I make a final comment? This was not focused on Project Eagle.

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 across the portfolio of more than €30 billion and it wanted the bonds paid off.

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 would not have any knowledge of commercial decisions made by NAMA in terms of valuation.

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 a limited knowledge of the property market. The value of any property is what a willing buyer is prepared to pay for it on a given day. It seems bringing in third parties to value property in advance of sale does not decide the price.

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: Wait a second. Let me finish.

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 a matter for NAMA and the officials who have expertise in this area.