Results 9,921-9,940 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) (25 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Will Mr. Stewart say that again? There were references to-----

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is certainly news to me. The board minutes from the meeting of 13 March state: "The Board noted that PIMCO had advised that the negotiations had commenced in April 2013". In our previous session, which was attended by some members of the NAMA board, Mr. Oliver Ellingham agreed with me when I put the following to him: "PIMCO, on leaving the process of its own volition, as I interpret...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Hold on a moment. Mr. Stewart is party to this conversation and Mr. Hanna is there because he is head of asset recovery. Mr. Stewart was there in his capacity. What is Mr. Stewart's position again?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Stewart was there for his legal input. Is he saying that a reference was made to April or May and to this day he has no understanding of what it refers to or why April or May were referenced?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Hold on. When Mr. Stewart was doing up his notes, and in fairness to him he kept notes-----

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Well done. When Mr. Stewart was doing up his notes, did he inquire of Mr. Hanna what might have been meant by that reference to April -May 2013?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Stewart simply cannot recall. We have a record of a phone call which was not any phone call between a set of people. Bear in mind the board is talking to the legal counsel from the PIMCO end. This is reflected in Mr. Stewart's contemporaneous notes and the board minutes and he is not disputing that those dates were mentioned. We have no explanation as to what was meant and why those...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Did it? According to Mr. Rice, European legal counsel for PIMCO, the process had been with NAMA for several months and he referenced April or May 2013. The board minutes state: "PIMCO had advised that the negotiations had commenced in April 2013". This pre-dates correspondence from the Northern Minister and all of that sequence of events.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, perhaps PIMCO might assist. When members of the NAMA board were before the committee they were insistent that PIMCO was seeking to stay inside this transaction. They were emphatic on repeated occasions at our meeting that PIMCO wished at all costs to sidestep whatever regulatory irregularities it may have come across and remain within the process. Is that Mr. Stewart's recollection?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I appreciate that. Let us go back to Mr. Stewart's notes on the 11 March telephone call. Mr. Rice for PIMCO states that PIMCO did not want to continue in a process with any degree of impropriety for PIMCO or NAMA and that PIMCO was willing to withdraw completely. That is a straightforward statement of intent in that PIMCO understood the seriousness of the issue and its legal obligations...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Please do.

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)

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) (25 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: What does Mr. Stewart surmise from that?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: How lengthy is the note on the call of 10 March?

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will study the notes. I have to say that is not how the records-----

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will conclude but I would first like to make the following point. We have Mr. Stewart in the room and we obviously need to study Mr. Stewart's notes. I do not know whether other members have these notes or whether it is appropriate to take a break to allow people to study 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)

Mary Lou McDonald: If we are to investigate or examine all of this correctly, we must have time to absorb the detail before putting the questions.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Written correspondence after the event is fine but I am very concerned that I have no explanation for this April-May business. It seems the board or members thereof believe this was a typo, whereas we have established it is not a typo. I want to know what was going on in April or May. Is this a reference to when the deal was cut with Frank Cushnahan who was still on the Northern committee...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Furthermore, we have inferences in the board minutes of ostensible commitments to transparency on the part of PIMCO. To me, that is very loaded language in a minute of a board meeting. According to my reading, it demonstrates hostility on the part of NAMA towards PIMCO having bothered coming forward. There is a very firmly stated position by the board, the people who are in charge, the CEO...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: No. Mr. Stewart has to be able to account for his notes. He refers in his notes to Mr. Tom Rice, European legal counsel for PIMCO, citing that the process had been with NAMA, referencing April and May 2013. His notes do not record any challenge to or refutation of those dates. The April date is echoed in the board minutes. As of yet, bar some makey-uppy thing about it being a typo, we...