Results 13,721-13,740 of 26,396 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I would like more clarification as to why. We got answers about other loan sales and projects. What is the issue with getting answers on this one?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I am asking questions about value, what it was sold for and whether it was an off-market transaction. Those are process questions and systems questions.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: Did any conflict of interest issues arise from that transaction?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: Conflicts of interest can happen. If there are any conflicts of interest in a sale, they are declared. Conflicts of interest can be anything. Were any conflicts of interest at all brought to Mr. McDonagh's attention in this regard?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I know. I am asking whether, to Mr. McDonagh's knowledge, declarations of any conflicts interests were made concerning any element of that sale.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: A statutory declaration was made, which is standard under section 172.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: Did that involve any declared conflicts of interest?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: Some commentary held that for that loan sale NAMA waived a requirement that the purchaser must not be connected to a relevant debtor.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: That is not true?

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I think the rest of us should have the opportunity to say that Deputy MacSharry speaks for himself.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: A number of accusations have been made about a number of Accounting Officers and they are well able to defend themselves, but I would not want the perception to be that Deputy MacSharry's opinion is one shared by all members. To be fair to them, the witnesses are brought before the committee to deal with certain issues. I do not have a difficulty in Mr. Carville answering the question...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: No, we do not.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I was hoping I would see-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: Speak for yourself.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I will try to be as quick as I can. We all want to get out. I want to make one observation on NAMA's overall performance and I will put it to Mr. Daly first. I have some sympathy for his position in respect of decisions his organisation would have to make because it is somewhat subjective. People will have opinions as to whether good or bad decisions were made. NAMA has to make, as Mr....

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I accept that. I will make one follow-on point and maybe Mr. McDonagh can come in then. One lesson I learned from it in terms of my analysis of how loan sales work and how the management of assets work is that one argument that was made consistently by NAMA is that it must work in what it calls the real world where there are market solutions and market ways of doing things. In fact,...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I understand all that but in fairness, the question I asked was in respect of the internal return rate and whether that should have been a practice used by NAMA. We have to be able to make judgments. We, as a committee have to be able to say with some form of reliability, metric and benchmark that something was a good outcome and was a good decision. We can look at the macro objective to...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I do not think that in the view of the Comptroller and Auditor General, that would have been the case, that a rate would have been set for all of the loan sales or all of the assets.

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: My second question is on housing. We had a good discussion on housing and a good articulation from both Mr. McDonagh and Mr. Daly on the housing situation. Again what I would be looking at is their articulation of it and then the practice, when one considers the 13,000 units NAMA delivered and whether, in the overall scheme of things, it was helpful in solving the housing crisis or...

Public Accounts Committee: National Asset Management Agency: Financial Statements 2016 and 2017
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report No. 102: National Asset Management Agency Second Progress Report (20 Sep 2018)

David Cullinane: I fully accept the parameters and the constraints. Affordability is obviously the biggest issue. There was actually a very interesting discussing about what contributes to rising prices. Many experts say that supply is only one element and the bigger issue - one of the biggest issues that the State never grappled with - was land speculation. Land is a major driver in driving up the price...