Results 9,501-9,520 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will go back to the verbal briefing. I assume when Mr. Ronnie Hanna initially gave Lazard a verbal briefing, PIMCO was part of that briefing.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I put it to Mr. Long that I think he is being disingenuous, with all due respect. PIMCO withdrawing from this was a horse of a very different colour from others that may have shown an interest at some point. Lazard would have known that as it was briefed at the get-go by Mr. Ronnie Hanna that PIMCO had made this reverse inquiry, it was front and centre, it was the most active bidder and the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I understand that but Lazard was aware of its significance and centrality in this process. Mr. Ronnie Hanna would have said it, would he not?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Long has conceded, or put on the record, that PIMCO enjoyed an advantage over other bidders.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: He is accepting that it is the case. Of course, that advantage accrued to PIMCO because NAMA afforded it that advantage.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Hang on a minute, Mr. Long. Nobody else was selling this portfolio. The only people who could have conferred that advantage were in NAMA.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: As the witness knows, it was not just about access to the data room. PIMCO had access to debtor information and so on and so forth. I accept Lazard could not have known that at the time. That is not my point at all. Mr. Long remains resolute in a position that there was competitive tension and this was a competitive process. That is entirely at variance with his acceptance that PIMCO...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Maybe we just have different views of what represents a competitive process? Perhaps I should have used the term "fair competition" or a "fair competitive process". One cannot claim fair competition if one party enjoys an advantage, which Mr. Long has conceded.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Lazard have a different definition of "open competition" than any legal definition of open competition? It is very firmly rooted in fairness, equality of access to information and processes and so on. I do not understand the basis for Mr. Long's claim any longer for-----

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (22 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: 535. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his Department's plan for the maintenance and restoration of Broadstone Station, Dublin 7; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a wall has been erected in front of Broadstone Station; and if so, the reason for this wall. [35906/16]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know we cannot cover everything in the work programme but that is a really critical issue in terms of the use of public resources and regulation generally and is certainly something I would be most keen for us to focus on. Notwithstanding all this work, I do not know if we would be in a position to start indicating when we might turn to an issue such as that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a critical issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I assume it would be overly ambitious to suggest that we could deal with that issue before Christmas.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: In respect of the nursing homes and the fair deal scheme, could the Comptroller and Auditor General contextualise that issue within the work and audits he has carried out? I do not want to delay matters but I am trying to get a sense of how we would frame the discussion we need to have on this issue within the HSE audit.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: We referred to a number of people we would like to have before the committee. I accept the Chairman's point that the hearings cannot go on forever. However, for the purposes of thoroughness, what is the position regarding Brown Rudnick and Mr. Tuvi Keinan? Has there been any word from them?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about Ronnie Hanna?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Deputy David Cullinane raised the possibility of bringing back the legal advisers to the National Asset Management Agency. That is Mr. Cox.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Many issues arise, for example, in respect of what happened on the famous telephone calls on which we have a direct conflict of evidence.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, NAMA's head of legal should be here.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: On a point of information, perhaps the Deputy might give way in order that I can get clarification from the Comptroller and Attorney General. On advisers, their role and how it changed, Mr. Corrigan seems to have asserted that there was one approach at the time of Project Eagle and that it evolved into something more sophisticated.