Results 10,041-10,060 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) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not the question. I am affording Mr. Soffe and his colleagues an opportunity to withdraw what I think is very intemperate language and an assertion over which they could not possibly stand. Regardless of their difference around conclusions, to suggest that matters are unsubstantiated in this report is just wrong. I suggest that Mr. Soffe avails of the opportunity to withdraw that...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The report contains criticisms of the sales process. Mr. Soffe has accepted that, has he not?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is there - black on white. I am sure we will hear in the course of our hearings from some of these bidders and they may reiterate their concerns with the process.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not asking Mr. Soffe to-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sure the witnesses take my point. I hope they take it, particularly Mr. Soffe. He has made reference to his record in public service. He does not lightly appear before an Oireachtas committee and attempt to question or trash the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, a constitutional office. Does he take that point?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: In so doing, they are attacking rather unjustly and in an unfounded way. The witnesses made another assertion in the course of this morning which relates to PIMCO and the manner of its withdrawal from the sales process. Deputy Cullinane raised this issue with the witnesses earlier. They have suggested that having discovered these unethical and inappropriate success or finder fees, PIMCO...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The minutes reflect that according to the witnesses' narrative, PIMCO sought the acquiescence of NAMA. Is that still the witnesses' position?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Mr. Soffe understand the seriousness of making that assertion?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The very reason PIMCO approached NAMA and not vice versawas because it had unearthed this fact and in terms of not just what is ethical but what is legal and in compliance with the regulatory framework it is bound to, this caused a massive problem for it. PIMCO approached NAMA, not vice versa. We can agree on that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will come to that in a moment. We have established that the legal and compliance unit approached NAMA. The witnesses' contention is that having approached in that way, the legal and compliance division of PIMCO then sought to sidestep its regulatory and legal duties in an effort to stay within the process with NAMA's acquiescence. That is what the witnesses have told us today.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why did it approach NAMA then?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not what is reflected in the notes from the conference calls and, quite frankly, that really does not tally with common sense given that PIMCO made the approach to NAMA. I suppose PIMCO was the whistleblower in this scenario. The contemporaneous notes of the phone calls and exchanges relating to the legal and compliance unit in PIMCO and NAMA reflect its concern, its insistence that...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is it the board's position that the legal and compliance unit of PIMCO sought to hang in in the process?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The notes from the conference calls completely refute that assertion. In the conference call dated 12 March 2014, PIMCO further stated that it could not see how any change would allow the organisation to continue with the transaction. This suggests the move to try to change things or side step things did not emanate from PIMCO but from NAMA.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: In the conference call on 11 March 2014, the head of asset recovery, Mr. Ronnie Hanna inquired about other options. PIMCO asked what he meant by it, and Mr. Hanna asked if the deal could be shaped differently for the arrangement fee to come out. This is fairly explicit that NAMA was seeking to reorder or reshape things to keep PIMCO in it. It does not support the board members’...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is it the board members' contention that Mr. Hanna acted alone in that regard?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The notes I have quoted from are summaries of the communications, mainly conference calls, between PIMCO and NAMA in March 2014 regarding PIMCO's withdrawal from the Project Eagle loan sales process and are based on meetings with NAMA officials and the examination team reviewing a minute of a conference call prepared by NAMA's senior divisional manager, legal and reviewed by NAMA's head of...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I can only surmise that Mr. Ronnie Hanna, head of asset recovery, and NAMA's senior divisional manager, legal, were on a solo run in this regard. Is that the suggestion?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Hanna has been invited to the committee. We need to hear from NAMA's senior divisional manager, legal, about the matter. Could we make a note on it?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Briefly.