Results 10,101-10,120 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 (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not wish to interrupt Mr. Daly, but as we have limited time, he needs to keep his answers tight. His criticism of the Comptroller and Auditor General is not an accusation of incompetence or, Heaven forbid, malice.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I want Mr. Daly to clarify it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: As Mr. Daly tuned in this morning, he will know that the Comptroller and Auditor General contests the assertion he has again made that expertise was missing from the team, that he had sought and failed to acquire it. The Comptroller and Auditor General explained to the committee that, in fact, he required additional resources, not for the purposes of the investigation into Project Eagle but...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Comptroller and Auditor General has now clarified for Mr. Daly that that was not the case. Does Mr. Daly accept that?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: It appears it might be. Let us move on. Mr. Daly rather helpfully described the process for Project Eagle as bespoke. Therein lies the issue. Let us talk about NAMA's bespoke process. There was the decision, in the first instance, to dispose of the assets of Northern-based debtors in a single portfolio. Mr. Daly will accept, as reflected in the report, that was a marked shift from the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Of course, that opportunity came in the form of Brown Rudnick speaking on behalf of two clients, one of which, as we know, was PIMCO, with the other being Cerberus.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The opportunity, as Mr. Daly describes it, came in the form of the approach by Brown Rudnick. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. We are familiar with the choreography, but there was a letter from Brown Rudnick.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Given that there is nothing in the papers presented with which to establish there was a really deliberate thinking of alternatives to the portfolio sale, from the evidence before us, Project Eagle was not so much a creation of NAMA but a creation of Brown Rudnick and the clients for which it was acting or speaking.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Daly.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am coming to it. We have established that the strategy in dealing with the Northern assets takes a shift in response to this approach from Brown Rudnick and this forms the view.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly can tell me what his strong views are; if he does not mind, I want to work my way through this sequentially. That was the first move in a bespoke arrangement. Second, we know that PIMCO initially required exclusivity in its dealing with NAMA but that NAMA knocked this back.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is reflected. Given the nature of the sales process NAMA had adopted, it did not allow for exclusivity, but it certainly narrowed the field and went some way at least towards meeting that demand. Let me explain why I am putting this to Mr. Daly. NAMA stepped outside its own established procedure in a two-stage sales process which was established for dealing with assets worth...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly should continue being brief.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not convincing. Does Mr. Daly accept that NAMA modified or changed its established procedure for Project Eagle; that it had a single-stage sales process.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 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 (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: In terms of there being a bespoke arrangement, whatever about being flexible, the very idea that when an opportunity presents itslef, one should throw the rulebook out the window is not a good way to operate and is not one that would inspire confidence on any level, including in its delivery of best value for the taxpayer.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is why NAMA has procedures and processes in the first place.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, one that acts in the interests, as NAMA is mandated to do, of taxpayers first.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Therefore, when NAMA is audited and the team concerned makes the very fair observation, as conceded by Mr. Daly, that NAMA had a bespoke arrangement - he can call it irregular, flexible or what he will - why decry those who carried out the audit and simply established, as a matter of fact, that NAMA had radically changed its sales strategy and that the sales process was different? If not...