Results 9,541-9,560 of 21,149 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) (10 Nov 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Not "we". I understand why the Minister was told. Why was Ms Nolan told?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: It was just to keep Ms Nolan in the loop.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not very helpful from a public interest point of view, is it?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I would have thought telling Ms Nolan and the Minister should have triggered something somewhere in the system, but I might be just an innocent and naive soul.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: When Ms Nolan was last before the committee on 6 October, she said she raised the issue of the discount rate. She will be aware that it has been a matter of contention. The established rate was 5.5% as agreed by the NAMA board yet NAMA says the discount rate applied in respect of the Eagle Project was 10%, that that was the appropriate rate and so on. Ms Nolan said at her last appearance...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Ms Nolan. Can we have absolute clarification on that because Mr. Reid went on to state:May I clarify the concern ... raised at the beginning? The discussion was less about the discount rate per se ... The testimony we have is that the discount rate was not raised per seor otherwise. Can Mr. Reid clarify 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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Reid for clarifying that because it was a matter 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)

Mary Lou McDonald: For the purposes of clarity, the discount rate was not raised with the Comptroller and Auditor General's office.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Precisely. I thank Mr. Reid.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is important that we have clarity on that. Is Ms Nolan still contesting the Comptroller and Auditor General's position or does she still harbour those worries in respect of the discount rate?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am assuming Ms Reid has read the Comptroller and Auditor General's report.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: So she will be aware that that is not the contention of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not wish to be rude to Ms Nolan. I am sure she is an accomplished and committed public servant but when I hear the officials of the Department before this committee, and not least today, I hear waffle. It pains me to say that. Ms Nolan was listening to the proceedings earlier and the Comptroller and Auditor General made clear that it is not a quibble over accountancy treatment but a...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: What I cannot understand is why, as a witness before this committee, Ms Nolan lapses into a tour of the world when we are talking about the specifics of Project Eagle. I need clear-cut answers from Ms Nolan at this stage in terms of her acceptance or otherwise of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and matters associated with it, as well as answers in terms of the kind 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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Sorry, Ms Nolan, but is it a matter of absolute coincidence that that is precisely the position taken by NAMA? Is that purely coincidental?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not the finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, and I want to make it clear that the Comptroller and Auditor General does not disagree with Ms Nolan on that point.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will finish on this point. This is why that worries me, and I say this with the greatest respect to Ms Nolan. She tells us now that she has no idea what the appropriate discount rate should be or might have been. That was the sentence out of her mouth.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yet on 6 October she came before this committee and made an issue of the use of the 5% discount rate. That is incoherent, and I am not sure what it adds to our unravelling of all of these matters.