Results 32,001-32,020 of 33,126 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I cannot read all of them, but they are all mentioned in the report. I do not have the time to do so, but I will come back to them in ten minutes. They are all set out in the conclusions, one after another. For example, it is stated the process was not competitive and that the bidders were restricted. Mr. Collison keeps talking about nine or ten bidders, but there were three.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Other speakers have. The process was not competitive but restrictive. Mr. Collison said, "If we had underbid, there would have been a lot more bidders."

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Yes, I took a note of what Mr. Collison said. There were a lot more bidders, but NAMA stopped them. Eight out of ten bidders came forward, but only two were allowed in.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Eight were refused. When Mr. Collison makes a statement that if they had underbid, there would, potentially, have been a lot more bidders, it must be remembered that there were a lot more bidders. In the process NAMA had set up it was stated they were not being taken in. Different reasons were given and set out in the report. One was that a commitment had been given to the existing...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: The most important point is that NAMA said "No" to them.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Chairman, I hope my presence here does not ensure that we are back in the Dáil next week because I am looking forward to spending a week in Galway. In any event, I had better ask a good question. I wish to follow on from Deputy McDonald's questions on this matter. Obviously the witnesses can accuse us of having the benefit of hindsight. I cannot tell the witnesses how many times I...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: All right.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Surely the legal team would have a role in dealing with conflicts of interest.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: There is a lot more than just Mr. Cushnahan involved.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I referred one of the conclusions, but there is a whole chapter on conflicts of interest. It leads on to Cerberus.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: My difficulty is that I have only so many minutes. I am referring to the six conclusions and would have expected the witnesses to deal with each of them.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Yes, I accept that. Let us look at the board. I will go to a different chapter, the one on the sales process, about which the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted a number of controls in dealing with the same problems. Page 72 deals with something of which Mr. Collison has some experience as he made a comment on the bidders. The report states that on 13 February 2014 "there was a...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: That is correct.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Absolutely. We will come to Mr. Collison's role. He cannot comment because he was not on the board.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Is that an accurate reflection of what happened at the board meeting?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: There is no sense that the board was taking this issue seriously. There had been a huge breach of confidentiality.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: Yes, it was mentioned in the newspapers that PIMCO had approached NAMA.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I do not think the witnesses have read the report. I do not think NAMA has read it. It zoomed in on the figures of 5.5% and 10% and placed a spin on them. "Spin" might be a strong a word, but that is what I believe. At every opportunity NAMA has come forward and zoomed in on what is a difference of opinion, as opposed to focusing on what the report actually states.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: I will continue by reading the last paragraph on page 72:Following the media coverage, NAMA and/or Lazard received enquiries from a further ten firms. Two of these - Goldman Sachs and Fortress - were allowed to enter the process. Lazard informed NAMA that it had excluded the other eight firms, seven of whom it said were well known to Lazard and had excellent reputations. They were just...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Catherine Connolly: When I read about it, I see a very limited approach. NAMA started with three bidders. As we have said so often, it was kept deliberately small for a small number of people. Other firms were excluded. Mr. Collison has said that if there had been an underbid, there would have been a lot more bidders. In reality, a lot more bidders were kept out because it did not suit the strategy, but...