Results 9,841-9,860 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) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The records reflect that fact.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Perhaps refreshingly in terms of most of our witnesses to date, Mr. Rowntree attaches a very high premium to evidence-based approaches.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Did the evidence available to Mr. Rowntree as a committee member, perhaps not least through the University of Ulster study, suggest there was significant scope and strategic space in respect of the assets held in Northern Ireland? I get the sense that Mr. Rowntree could see a shape or a pathway forward in the use and disposal of the assets.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: From this contribution, the committee gets some of the shape and contours of the discussions that would have taken place at the Northern Ireland advisory committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will come to that issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: In the light of this, was it wise to bundle the assets in the North and sell them in one lot? Is that the call Mr. Rowntree would have made?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not asking Mr. Rowntree to second guess the main board.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am coming to that issue. It is the most significant point Mr. Rowntree has made today. He is not going to give me a view, as a person who had access to the study. The records reflect what he said, that he overlaid the Northern Ireland Housing Executive data. He had a deep look at the assets and what was available in the North, mindful of the concerns about fire sales. Had he been in...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Rowntree does not accept Mr. Frank Daly's description of the Northern Ireland housing committee as a talking shop.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know; we hear that. When Mr. Rowntree became a member of the committee, was his role to consider the assets in the North, for example, a hotel in Lurgan or a shopping centre in Belfast? Was that his focus?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: On the terms of reference of the committee-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Rowntree made a most insightful set of remarks on the Project Eagle decision because we have fallen into this, even on this committee, by saying the Northern assets got bundled and sold. In fact, that is not what happened. The Northern debtors-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----were bundled.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: As we have reflected, 50% of the assets were not in fact in the North at all. There was 17% in Scotland.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: And so on.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Obviously, as the Northern committee, it stands to reason that it was not considering properties in the outer Hebrides in its deliberations.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Who is to know, Mr. Rowntree? Perhaps in another life. So PIMCO makes the approach, not on the basis of the Northern assets, but the Northern debtors. In fact, one has two strategic shifts. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: One has a shift in terms of Northern assets - what to do, deal with them singularly, work them our or sell them in a collective way. Shift number two is not about the assets in the first instance, it is actually about the debtors.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (13 Oct 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) (13 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. Mr. Rowntree has given evidence here today that he had no prior indication, inkling or discussion that such a manoeuvre was about to happen.