Results 3,161-3,180 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Crime Levels (15 Nov 2016)

Shane Cassells: 77. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if recorded crime statistics for County Meath are an accurate reflection of the reality of crime in the area; if all Garda stations in County Meath have access to the PULSE system; if not, the details of the stations without access; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34718/16]

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)

Shane Cassells: There have been a few senior analysis pieces done recently in national newspapers on the work of this committee, in this respect berating members, including the Chairman, for some of the approaches and on their questioning of NAMA officials and other senior witnesses. When NAMA officials have attended these meetings, they has been quite strong in attacking back, in particular, in terms of...

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)

Shane Cassells: I was not doing so. I am making the point that there is quite a divergence, not a small one, between both sets of the accounts that have been brought before us. That naturally calls into question what has been said to us.

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)

Shane Cassells: The attitude and the tone of some of the witnesses who have come here has not helped the case. As I said, the work of members of this committee has now also been called into question in the context of robust questions being asked when the suggestion is perhaps we should be coming in here with cotton wool and cuddling some of the witnesses.

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)

Shane Cassells: That goes to the heart of the matter. When it talks about the rump - I think that is how it described it - of what was left, that was the motivation for the bundling of the assets. It felt the rump of what was left could not be worked out. That is what drove NAMA to the motivation for the opportunity to avail of an overall sale rather than a work-out. On that basis, Mr. McCarthy is asking...

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)

Shane Cassells: Unfortunately, that is the 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)

Shane Cassells: That comes back to the point that NAMA's failure with the procedural process leaves us with a whole raft of “what ifs” in terms of the questions Mr. McCarthy is raising. That is one aspect of its decision to go and pursue that strategy if it had not worked out. The points raised by Deputy Peter Burke are pertinent here in respect of the Minister for Finance and in terms of...

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)

Shane Cassells: If there is pressure from the European Central Bank and so forth, that is not a quantifiable accounting figure that one can put in an audit. It is a bigger pressure coming from those in Europe. What is Mr. McCarthy's assessment of that?

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)

Shane Cassells: The Comptroller and Auditor General has made a very forthright statement here this morning to the effect that it is not an accounting difference between his office and NAMA. He has said the difference is about economic decision making and how one makes choices about public resources. That is a very important statement because the dispute was characterised as simply a matter of accounting...

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)

Shane Cassells: Sorry to interrupt, but on that final point, is that where we are? Is the dispute about that, namely, that it could be the right decision, from a business point of view, to proceed and take a loss? NAMA is still contending that given the baseline figure that was set out it made a profit, not a loss. Are we arguing the toss of a coin on that point? Is that where we are?

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)

Shane Cassells: I welcome Ms Nolan, Mr. Reid and Mr. Carville back to the committee. Our hearings are becoming a little like the film "Groundhog Day", with witnesses making return visits to the Committee of Public Accounts. Unfortunately, unlike Bill Murray in the film, our previous repeat visitors before today have not seen a change in the script, although PIMCO's letter this morning will at least make...

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)

Shane Cassells: If the Northern Ireland Government was expressing specific preferences for bidders, why would the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and the Department not raise flags, considering it was said that the Department wanted a fully open and transparent process in the previous discussions we had here, yet the Northern Ireland Government was saying it wanted to proceed with just one bidder?

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)

Shane Cassells: There is a different version in terms of what it is saying in this 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)

Shane Cassells: They obviously do, as again expressed in this 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)

Shane Cassells: Okay. In the context of my earlier remarks on the evidence at the time of Ms Nolan's first appearance here, she made the point that there was only one game in town in terms of how this process would proceed, and that there was not an option in her mind or in the Department's mind to work through the loans. How much hard analysis was put forward by NAMA to the Department in respect of an...

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)

Shane Cassells: My apologies, I have a very different recollection of our previous conversations and of my questioning of Ms Nolan on the last day in terms of her analysis.

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)

Shane Cassells: That is fine I can go back and check on her analysis of the role that NAMA took in this respect and the manner of her defence of the role it took. I think we all asked Ms Nolan did she believe that the role NAMA took was the right course of action in securing the best possible deal for the State.

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)

Shane Cassells: That is an interesting point to explore. Ms Nolan said that her interest was in whether it was selling and whether it was getting the money back. The Chairman raised points earlier in respect of table 7, where PIMCO in its bid for assets one to 55 had put in a figure of €950 million, yet NAMA was looking at a figure of €891 million. In terms of issues like that where...

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)

Shane Cassells: The Department had no knowledge of that whatsoever.

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)

Shane Cassells: Therefore, from the Department's point of view, it is not the case that the objective of selling at all costs trumps everything. That would not be the case from the Department's point of view.