Results 9,861-9,880 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: It came at him sideways.

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 is a very experienced person.

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: Am I correct to say that Mr. Rowntree is an accountant by profession?

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: How does it sit with him professionally that such a fundamental set of changes would be made with such scant records, if any, to reflect discussion, analysis and evaluation? I ask him for his professional view on that.

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: NAMA is bound by the NAMA Act.

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: It must get value for money for the taxpayer and expeditiously deal with the assets. There is also that piece in it around social dividend as well.

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: Presumably Mr. Rowntree was conscious of that.

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: Let me bring Mr. Rowntree back to another point that has occurred to me. Given the fact the strategy was to bundle debtors, which captured a lot of assets in the North, and then reflecting again on the conflict of interest that Mr. Cushnahan had - Mr. Cushnahan had a relationship and this is a matter of fact, so I am not asking Mr. Rowntree to speculate - with seven debtors, does that not...

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 fall to them. Did Mr. Rowntree know about the fixers' fees or the success fees, which is his stated position?

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 accept that and we have that now as a matter of record. Does Mr. Rowntree think that he should have known?

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: But that did not happen.

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: So there were not consistent in their approach.

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 Mr. Rowntree know that Cerberus had stepped 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 had notice of the finalisation of the deal at the eleventh hour, as I said.

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: It strikes me as very strange behaviour from the chairman of a committee with whom Mr. Rowntree had worked for a considerable length of time at that stage.

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: Very often when these matters have been discussed, Mr. Rowntree, the assertion has been made that Project Eagle and all of the controversy associated with it is "a Northern matter." I take from Mr. Rowntree's evidence a very clear statement that control, decision-making and ultimately responsibility was vested in the board of NAMA, which was located not in Belfast but in Dublin.

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: NAMA contends that if there were problems, and we know there were clearly governance failures and matters more serious that are not for this committee in respect of this transaction, that the problems resided exclusively on the part of the buyer and not on the part of the seller. I do not wish to put words in Mr. Rowntree's mouth but from his testimony today I think that he raised questions...

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 was working on the assumption, which is not unreasonable, that the decisions made in respect of what transpired around PIMCO and the decision to carry on would be informed by a view of the audit committee and legal opinion. Would that be his expectation?

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: Can I dissent from that analysis?

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 strongly dissent from it.