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Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: That is the key point. The difference here is that we cannot, as the Chair quite rightly pointed out, drift into that area of corruption. However, there is a difference between a process that has been corrupted and-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: A few minutes or half an hour.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: He always does this after me, for some reason. I have six questions and will make two observations. The first observation is to concur with my colleagues. I know the witnesses have a job to do, and I thank them for coming in, but can I say that, for the three of them, this has been a public relations disaster. To sign off collectively on a statement like this, with the inferences it...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Sorry, I said this was a statement, not a question. This is the Committee of Public Accounts. We ask the questions. That is my first statement, and I will make another one at the end of my contribution. My first question relates to page 2 of the witnesses' soliloquy, or whatever we will call it. They state:Selling in more than one lot would, in our view, have delivered an inferior...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Did Mr. Soffe not think, when NAMA brought in a company to do the work, that an underlying analysis of the assets would have been the right thing to do?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Therefore, Mr. Soffe did not think it would have been right to get the organisation NAMA had brought in to do an assessment of the assets.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: NAMA had the competence in-house. Mr. Soffe did not need a second opinion.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: I have no issue with the second part of Mr. McEnery's analysis. Let me just say this, from my perspective and that of most of us here, the fact that this was not done was a weakness and it should have been done. On relying solely on in-house analysis, one always needs a second opinion. I will get back to that because I have limited time. I laugh because I said this to the Chairman....

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: I was only born then.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: I understand what Mr. Soffe is saying. Can I just reference this so? If that is the case, and that is Mr. Soffe's argument, what weighting was put on that in relation to this analysis?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Was part of the equation to sit and-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Will Mr. Soffe just answer my question?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: I have limited time. Can Mr. Soffe answer my question, please?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Okay. What weighting?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: What about Mr. McEnery's two colleagues?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Mr. Ellingham?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: We have Mr. McEnery saying it was negative, we have Mr. Soffe saying that it was significant or it was more of an issue, and we have Mr. Ellingham saying that it was neutral. Effectively, that is a plus, a minus and a neutral which makes it a neutral, which means that it had no impact.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: But the weighting put in subsequently, in their few words here and, by the way, as referenced by NAMA's chair, is much higher.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Alan Kelly: I think I have proved my point. I will move on. I have a limited amount of time. Lazard is constantly being referred to here. Let me just say this, I, personally, would never hire the company from what I have seen here. For me, this is a box-ticking exercise. Its role was bizarre, and I have referenced this previously. Mr. Soffe, in his opening statement, stated, "I and other Board...