Results 12,941-12,960 of 21,203 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Will Mr. McDonagh provide some detail on a particular transaction? It involved a particular site on Sir John Rogerson's Quay. NAMA sold the site in 2013 for €7.5 million. A little over a year later the site changed hands for €17.75 million.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Will Mr. McDonagh give me the correct dates, please?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Regardless, Mr. McDonagh does not dispute the fact that it was passed on for considerably more than the price for which NAMA sold it?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. McDonagh has stated that. Our job is to scrutinise these matters.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: This is an isolated individual case. Given the size and the value of the NAMA portfolio it is probably a small matter in one regard, but it does give rise to concerns, I believe, notwithstanding the time lag of a year and a half years or two years. The fact that NAMA sold it at one price and it subsequently changed hands for more than double that price raises questions for people in terms...
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I heard all that. I do not expect Mr. McDonagh to have the gift of seeing into the future; I accept that. However I do not accept Mr. McDonagh saying glibly that no one can predict exactly the right time to sell on an asset. Is that not what NAMA is charged with doing? NAMA is charged with making those judgments.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am instancing this transaction. We have discussed previously the fact that NAMA is not an organisation or body that is amenable to close scrutiny by parliamentarians like us because of commercial sensitivities and the commercial nature of NAMA's task. That is what we are told and that is the position set out by NAMA. I am citing this instance and raising a concern around it. Perhaps...
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: How does the taxpayer get sight of that data?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Have there been high profile instances where NAMA has sold an individual property or portfolio of properties here or overseas at what transpired to be a greatly depressed level? Obviously, NAMA monitors these things. Has the agency ever entered into a transaction in good faith and with the best judgment available only to discover one year or 18 months later that the same portfolio or...
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Does NAMA keep an eye on properties that have passed through the hands of the agency, that have moved from NAMA debtors to others or for which NAMA has had a responsibility? Does NAMA monitor their subsequent movements?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Does NAMA do that in a systematic way?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: One of the areas Mr. McDonagh cited as a concern in terms of continued NAMA performance is the retention of specialist staff. He has raised this issue before and we have debated it. What are the current staffing numbers in 2014?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: 370.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am correct in saying that represents an increase from 224 in 2012 to 331 in 2013.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: That does not suggest any flight of staff from the organisation.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Alright. There has also been an increase in the payroll bill from 2012 to 2013 and 2014. I am correct in saying that.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: What is the quantum of that increase?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: NAMA's numbers have increased and payroll costs have also increased. What is the average salary level of staff members? How does it average out? I looked at some of the figures earlier. I reckoned payroll, including salary and pension liability, averaged out at about €93,000 or €94,000.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: About €90,0000. There has not been a dramatic shift in that from 2012.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency Financial Statements 2013 (18 Dec 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: That does not suggest any great change in the profile of NAMA's staffing.