Results 9,941-9,960 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: Yes, I am aware of 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: I am not for a minute challenging that. I am taking that as read until somebody demonstrates otherwise. I am simply saying that notes from NAMA now record these dates, and an account cannot be given of them. I refer not only to Mr. Stewart in this regard.

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: But we are not going to know because Mr. Stewart did not ask and nothing is recorded here.

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: They are senior counsel.

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. Collison, in his opening statement, made reference to a reverse inquiry from PIMCO and said it was not a unique scenario. Mr. Stewart, in the e-mail he sent to Ronnie Hanna reflecting what transpired in the first phone call of 10 March, cites Mr. Tom Rice, European legal counsel for PIMCO. He states, at line 3, "[Mr. Rice] explained that the Project Eagle deal was brought to Pimco by...

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: Is that not so interesting? Why would Brown Rudnick be cooking up a concept like 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: -----and bringing it to PIMCO? Who might be able to help us in explaining that? I have always understood the reverse inquiry. In fairness, Mr. Collison, the point has been made before that it is not uncommon. I will not query that and I accept it. Is it not odd that it would be Brown Rudnick who would hook PIMCO in and say "How's this for an idea?". That is certainly not how I would...

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 am just saying the witness has assisted us because of the clarification that, according to Mr. Rice at any rate and speaking on behalf of PIMCO, this idea did not come from within PIMCO but, rather, that the latter was approached by Brown Rudnick in respect of it. That is very interesting. We have established that there was a relationship between Brown Rudnick and Tughans and that it was...

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: Okay. Has Mr. Collison any knowledge of how far back the relationship between Mr. Frank Cushnahan and Tughans - an established relationship - and Brown Rudnick dates?

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: Who, if anybody, within NAMA could help us with 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: That is correct.

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: As a matter of fact, we do. According to the note taken by Mr. Collison's colleague, Mr. Stewart, counsel for PIMCO have made it clear that Brown Rudnick came to them. So a firm of solicitors came to them. We subsequently discovered that said firm of solicitors had a specific relationship with Tughans but we do not know at what point it began. We know for sure that Mr. Cushnahan had a...

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: Am I right in assuming, however, that it was Mr. Hanna, in the course of these exchanges with PIMCO - with Mr. Stewart party to some of the conversations - who was reporting back to the board?

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 fine. We might come back to the matter. Turning to the extract from the signed minutes of 13 March, in this scenario Mr. Ronnie Hanna is reporting back on the conversations with PIMCO. At this stage there have been four exchanges between legal counsel, all of which Mr. Stewart was party to, along with Ms Aideen O'Reilly, who is his superior.

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 correct. We only have four recordings. Do we have the fifth?

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 thank the witness for the clarification. In response to a question from the board, it was noted that - notwithstanding the premeditated fee-sharing arrangement that had been put in place by PIMCO - the catalyst for disclosure of the arrangement to NAMA was allegedly the insistence of PIMCO's legal and compliance department. I assume from the minute that it was Mr. Hanna presenting the...

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 certainly will. I notice that at the end of record No. 4, which is the phone call with PIMCO on 12 March, there is a discussion around managing the message. PIMCO indicates that it does not want it to look like it has been kicked from the process, and that is not unreasonable from Mr. Rice's perspective, as it was clearly not kicked out of the process. A call in the morning was arranged...

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: Could we have a note on that? It is ironic, particularly as NAMA subsequently has gone to considerable lengths to suggest that PIMCO was kicked out of the process. I would appreciate that note.

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 am sorry but we may have to agree to disagree on this point. Any objective analysis of what Mr. Daly and others have had to say does not tally with Mr. Collison's benign assessment. In the context of record No. 4, Mr. Rice stated that they had not notified the decision to their advisers. PIMCO, at this stage, has called it and is withdrawing. It informs NAMA that it had not notified...