Results 11,341-11,360 of 21,157 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The timing of the release of the documentation by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and his Department is very telling. The experience to date has reflected the fact that the Minister has been markedly reluctant to give a full account and to answer questions on all the issues pertaining to NAMA and, more specifically, to the Northern loan book, Project Eagle. In order to be helpful,...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I think it is obvious that we will have to deal with the documentation later. Just to make it clear, there is no issue with the documentation being published. That is correct and proper. It is a matter of the timing and the motivation for the timing. I entirely agree with Deputy McFadden that it is not fair to point fingers at civil servants. I do not think that is what was intended but...

Public Accounts Committee: Northern Ireland Assembly Finance Committee: Discussion on NAMA Project Eagle Sale (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Curaim fáilte roimh Mr. McKay and his fellow committee members. It is useful that Mr. McKay has echoed a position expressed at this committee in respect of the need for NAMA not just to correspond with the committee of the Assembly but, in fact, to appear before it. Perhaps the only efficient mechanism for getting answers to the redaction question that Deputy Ross posed is for NAMA to...

Public Accounts Committee: Northern Ireland Assembly Finance Committee: Discussion on NAMA Project Eagle Sale (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Am I right in assuming that Mr. McKay would like Mr. Daly to present himself before the Northern Ireland committee so that it can explore these matters with him?

Public Accounts Committee: Northern Ireland Assembly Finance Committee: Discussion on NAMA Project Eagle Sale (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: This is more to be helpful, a Chathaoirligh, and to refer Deputy Perry to correspondence to this committee from 24 September in which NAMA, which one presumes holds all the due diligence information on the properties concerned, set out for it the geographic breakdown of the portfolio. It then broke down further the areas of the North in which the portfolios were and then beyond that into...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Fáilte romhaibh uilig. Mr. Daly knows that we have in attendance members of the Northern finance committee. We heard a statement from their cathaoirleach. An issue that arose was NAMA's continuing refusal to attend that committee. Will NAMA reconsider its position? I insist that it is essential that NAMA make itself available to the committee. What is Mr. Daly's response?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sorry. Mr. Daly has put all of that on the record and we are aware of NAMA's correspondence with the committee. I have an eye on the clock, as this is my first question.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Very briefly, if Mr. Daly would not mind.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will say something to Mr. Daly before we move on from this point. Given what would be a matter of basic courtesy and common sense for the average person, the taxpayer in this jurisdiction would have no tolerance for NAMA's dodging or any mar dhea reason it might produce for not appearing before the committee. NAMA has appeared in Stormont previously, engaged with the Northern committee...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have studied the documentation in full.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Thank you for that view, Mr. Daly, but-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Daly for that. As someone who is elected and living in this jurisdiction, I do not accept that view. For many people watching this exchange, I imagine that their difficulty with NAMA is that it seems at times to be accountable to no one, including this committee, but-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----I will move on.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let us see that in action.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: And reiterated the position of his committee that Mr. Daly should attend. One of the assertions that Mr. Daly made when NAMA attended us in July and that he reiterated today is that members of the Northern advisory committee "never had access to confidential information". He is emphatic about this.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. The difficulty with that is that some of the material provided by NAMA raises a serious question mark over the matter. I will draw Mr. Daly's attention to the fourth meeting of the Northern advisory committee, which was held on 7 October 2013 in, surprisingly, Tughans. What becomes evident from the minutes is that there was a full discussion of Project Eagle. I am sure that Mr. Daly...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is correct. It was a letter from Sammy Wilson-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----the then Minister, but Mr. Daly did more than just advise of an unsolicited approach by PIMCO. He advised that the board would consider the matter on 10 October with a view to possible further engagement, that the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and Minister Hamilton, as it was then, had discussed the matter at the recent meetings. Mr. Daly also invited feedback from the Northern members and...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is great to see that courtesy counts at times for you, Mr. Daly.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (Resumed) (1 Oct 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I notice also from documentation provided to the committee in the North that Mr. Daly itemised the meetings that NAMA held with various officials and with Ministers in the North. What really jumped out at me here - 11 meetings are cited, I think, between January 2011 and 7 October 2013, the same day ironically as that Northern committee meeting - is that Mr. Daly was in attendance at them...