Results 10,381-10,400 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 (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is that not an extraordinary thing then, when it occurs to Mr. McCarthy in his exercise that an obvious thing to do was to go back to that service and guidance that one relies on in terms of compliance for some form of advice or steer? They failed to do that. Not alone that, but one of the people involved in the conversation is actually the most senior person in the NTMA. Mr. McCarthy...

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: When did they furnish them with this gem of information?

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: Did Mr. McCarthy see a piece of paper with that written down?

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, but is it written down on headed notepaper that says NTMA compliance, or did Mr. McCarthy not see 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: Right. We will see whether that is there. We know that Mr. Daly has sought to discount, and in his view it is the correct thing to say, that the Northern committee had no real clout, no decision-making powers and so on. However, he went further in his eagerness to confront Mr. McCarthy's report. He is on the public record as describing this committee as a talking shop. I understand 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: Could I invite Mr. McCarthy's comment on the composition of the committee? Obviously it was not the board, but it did have full board members on it. It also had very senior persons, for instance, the head of asset recovery.

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: Very key people with access to all information - correctly, not inappropriately. I would have thought, looking at that line-up, that far from being a marginal, peripheral or inconsequential kind of gathering, fairly influential figures were around that table - knowledgeable people as well.

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: They were appointed initially by the former Minister, Mr. Lenihan, back in the day, and then reappointed by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, in 2012. Is that not 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: Okay. I thank Mr. McCarthy.

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 the Chairman and welcome back the gentlemen. It is not their first appearance before this committee and I have a sense that it will not be their last visit. I am struck, in the first instance, at the very trenchant criticism levelled by NAMA at the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is in marked contrast to the approach taken by that office at our hearing this morning. If I...

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, Mr. Daly's criticism is-----

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.