Results 11,601-11,620 of 21,157 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: We might come to that in a moment. Mr. Daly said earlier that he had informal meetings on the fringes of his board meetings in the North. Was he aware on 25 March 2014 of a meeting between Peter Robinson, Dan Quayle from Cerberus, Ian Coulter, a managing partner of Tughans Solicitors, and Simon Hamilton, who was the finance Minister subsequent to Sammy Wilson?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly was not aware of that meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Did he meet with any persons from Cerberus or with Mr. Quayle at any stage outside that?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: In the sequence of events, that meeting happens on 25 March. It was a private meeting and there are no official papers in the Northern system to account for it. A short number of days later, on 1 April, NAMA settles on Cerberus as the successful purchaser.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: On 4 April, the decision goes public. At this juncture, Peter Robinson says he spoke the previous night to the chairman of NAMA, Frank Daly, so Mr. Daly did speak to him then, and the former US Vice President, Dan Quayle, of Cerberus Capital, and on the basis of these conversations he said he believed this deal was excellent news for the Northern economy. Lots of people would take issue...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: On what date?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The date might be important.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Please do.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly said he checked with Cerberus between the board making the decision and the decision going public, that all proper procedures had been followed and that there was no glitch or suggestion of additional payments to anybody connected with NAMA.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly has read it into the record, and I thank him. Did it not raise concerns with Mr. Daly that he was dealing with the same parties, as I have set out?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: While it was the trigger issue, is there not a deeper issue and a more ongoing difficulty with the NAMA processes and, perhaps, Mr. Daly's oversight of it? Aside from the particulars of this payment, there was an ongoing relationship between Mr. Cushnahan and Tughans solicitors, which, in turn, had a relationship with Brown Rudnick, which, according to its documentation, had previous...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Perhaps I have mentioned that Ian Coulter, the managing partner of Tughans, attended the private meeting of 25 March.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Daly knows about it now. I am bringing it to his attention in order to illustrate how incestuous all of it was and the web that has been created between the same players in a small system with a tiny professional population. The net result and the concern for people trying to make sense of it and the taxpayer is that in the first scenario, there was an attempt at payola, NAMA got wind...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Absolutely, given that it appears it was the intention. In the second scenario, although Mr. Daly had removed the purchaser and the identity had changed, the same case of characters was involved in the final decision, including legal counsel, and the whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: This ignores the fact, which is subject to investigation, that at the end of the second scenario, £7 million is resting in an account for which we are not in a position to account.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not accept Mr. Daly's assertion that it is of no concern to NAMA. It revolves around the sale of a portfolio for which Mr. Daly was responsible. While he cannot control the actions of third parties, he has a duty of care, given that it is on his watch, to know exactly what is happening and ensure nothing improper occurs, in so far as he can.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: It has everything to do with the conduct and interactions of transactions such as this. Perhaps this is the nub of the problem more generally. It has everything to do with the networks of persons, professional, political and otherwise, in and around the transactions. If it demonstrates anything, it is how problematic the very closed nature of NAMA is. How are we to know? We know about...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Excuse me. Mr. Daly knew about the £15 million, which PIMCO informed him about. Given that PIMCO knew about it, we can be sure Brown Rudnick also knew about it. Presumably the parties who were party to the £15 million knew about it. Mr. Daly dealt with the situation, to his own way of thinking, adequately. However, in the name of God, when round two came around and the same...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Except that they were the same third parties who had been involved in round one and it was the same law firm, Tughans, that Mr. Daly knew in a general and a specific sense, given that a member of the NAMA board in the North had a very direct and close relationship with it. That is the difficulty for Mr. Daly whose attempts to push it away from himself and NAMA fall down on that simple reality.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2014 (9 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay.