Results 2,661-2,680 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: Is the Deputy saying that the concern expressed by the Northern Executive reduced the price available?

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 Ministers I met were Sammy Wilson, Simon Hamilton, the then First Minister, Peter Robinson, and the deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness. I would have been present at meetings of the North-South body where Ministers from all political parties were present. NAMA was always an agenda item. Sometimes it would be just a couple of sentences; other times, a discussion. No one ever...

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 not a question of agreement or disagreement. There are two conflicting views. The central issue for me is that on all occasions in NAMA transactions, the taxpayer would recover the maximum amount of money. I watched the evidence from the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Frank Daly and the committee’s questions. There seems to me to be an unresolved issue about what 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: My personal view is that the work the committee is undertaking is primarily to see if it can resolve the issue and get to an agreed view. Ms Ann Nolan, Second Secretary General, can give the Department’s view.

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 did not say 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: No. I have specific power to direct, in so far as the purposes of the Act are concerned.

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 am excluded from giving any direction to NAMA on commercial matters. That is where the line is drawn.

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 and neither did my predecessor. The last direction I issued to NAMA was when negative interest rates came in across Europe and NAMA was unable to carry out its business as originally intended.

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. Will the Deputy wait until I finish? When negative interest rates came in across Europe, I issued a directive to NAMA to enable it to change the interest rate basis and introduce a zero-rate interest rate. We can give the Deputy a note on that. That is the kind of primary policy position on which I and my predecessor, Brian Lenihan, issued directions. I understand there have been...

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 directions are laid before the House.

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, but, as I replied to Deputy Catherine Murphy, the context is the same. We had got out of the bailout at the end of 2013. We were strongly advised to have a precautionary programme or we would not get into the market.

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, I think I am entitled to finish the point. I was very conscious that there was a risk of getting out of the bailout programme without a precautionary programme. Getting out of the bailout meant getting money on the markets at reasonable interest rates. That is what the issue was and I was advised by a lot of people but I decided, on the balance of advantage, that it was better to get...

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: Of course it was around speeding up the sale of assets if that was the appropriate thing to do.

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: If that was the appropriate thing to do -----

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 did not direct them. I asked for their advice.

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 not semantics. This is a real policy issue, namely whether we could source money on the markets or not and what we could do to improve Ireland's credit rating so that we could source that money. The advice from the rating agencies and the ECB was to reduce the contingent liability of the NAMA bonds on the State balance sheet.

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 am entitled, as Minister for Finance, to have a view on policy and to take the advice of any agency I can source.

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: On all occasions -----

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 am not quite sure what point the Deputy is putting to me but I would refer him to the minutes of the phone call, which read as follows:At that meeting First Minister Robinson expressed the importance of any sales process to the Northern Ireland economy and in particular the impact on Northern Ireland of an acquirer's asset management development and general strategy, post-acquisition. 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: The Deputy has the document and -----