• Home
  • Contact
  • US Envoy
    • Undocumented Irish
  • Biography
  • Memorial
  • Recent
  • Data Privacy Policy
John Deasy T.D.

PAC 2015-16

Lessons for NAMA surrounding Project Eagle?

1/10/2015

0 Comments

 
PAC Meeting | Oct 1, 2015
National Asset Management Agency executives called and examined
​

[Extract]
Deputy John Deasy: I will be brief, as this has been a long day. I wish to ask the witnesses about Project Eagle. It is an important question because of what has happened since regarding the reputation of NAMA and the potential damage to public trust in NAMA as this matter has continued. Mr. [Frank] Daly has made clear that when the agency found out that Mr. Cushnahan was to have taken a fee, it stepped in quickly, I think Mr. Daly said within a day and a half, and it considered the exit of PIMCO and consulted Lazards.

I take it from this that Mr. Daly felt that the integrity of NAMA's process was still intact and that it should continue. In hindsight, was that a bad decision and has that caused damage to NAMA, to NAMA's reputation and how the agency is perceived? Mr. Daly himself talked about Cicero's quote, "who benefits?", and about the people who tried to damage NAMA by leaking information such as failed bidders or underbidders. However, it is not only people who leak information to damage NAMA who are involved in this regard; it also is NAMA's decision-making process and this must be thought about.

Should NAMA have considered this in greater depth at the time? Did NAMA discuss it sufficiently? Should it have stepped out of this process? Having given some thought to that question at this point, one journalist framed this issue by suggesting NAMA has lost the narrative and there may be some truth to that. However, it stems from the decision made to continue with the process after NAMA found out the individual in question was taking a fee. Consequently, it comes back to Mr. Daly and the decisions he has made or rather, not him personally but the decisions NAMA's board has made. Was that a mistake and in hindsight, was its correct to proceed with this or should NAMA have stopped the process when it had the chance? Have the witnesses considered this point in the interim?

Mr. Frank Daly (Chairman, NAMA): First, we always consider these things at the time and we continue to consider them. There has been a lot of consideration of this issue in NAMA. The damage, if there is damage, has been driven quite a bit by the conflation of issues that have emerged after the sale with the actual sale process itself. There has been huge conflation of issues in this regard and if the Deputy considers what the Northern committee is investigating, it by and large is focused on issues that arose after the sale on the purchase or the buying side.

​Once the word "NAMA" is mentioned anywhere in a narrative, certainly down here, the message or narrative gets a little garbled and misunderstood. I accept that point. As to whether damage has been done to NAMA, there are different constituencies out there. As for NAMA's standing with the investor community, the markets, the rating agencies or with many of those people who think through these things and look behind the headlines, I do not believe NAMA's reputation has been damaged and I do not think it has in any way compromised our capacity and ability to do our job. I do not wish to go back over the entire narrative or discussion on the decision-making process at the time.  It was not something we did not consider - whether we should just abort the sale. We weighed up the pros and cons and, in essence, we still had two competitive bidders in there for this. We had exited the one of which we thought there would be reputational or perceptional damage if it had continued. We still got our reserve price. We still believe we got a very good deal on this.

We always would examine our decisions both with hindsight and at the time. One thing we did learn from this, and one change we have made, is that we now always ask for a declaration from whoever is buying any portfolio that there is no success fee or any money payable to anybody connected with NAMA. We pitch that very widely, whether it be a board member, an advisory committee member or a member of the executive or staff. We get declarations from them.

I do not think I mentioned that this morning, although it has been mentioned before, that when Cerberus bought the Northern Ireland portfolio, it gave us such a declaration because we insisted on that after the PIMCO issue. Cerberus has assured us then and since, in terms of any payments it made as a result of the Project Eagle sale, that it stands over those payments as being legitimate and that it is not in any way in contravention of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the states, which is something it takes very seriously as a US-based company. Cerberus stands over that very strongly to this day.
0 Comments

    Meetings 2015-16

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Fast finder

    All
    1916
    2016
    Abolition
    Abuse
    Abuse Allegations
    Agriculture
    Aidan O'Driscoll
    Air Service
    Allegations
    Alleged Abuse
    AmCHam
    American Chamber
    Anglo Irish Bank
    An Post
    Ansbacher
    Apple
    Aran Islands
    ASEAN Countries
    BEPS
    Bord Bia
    Brendan Howlin
    Broadband
    Budget 2015
    Bunmahon
    Business
    Carer's Allowance
    Carlow
    Carlow IT
    Catherine Murphy
    CDETB
    Central Bank
    Children
    Collective Bargaining
    Commerce
    Communications
    Competitiveness
    Comptroller And Auditor General
    Comptroller And Auditor Generall
    Conal Devine Report
    Contracts
    Cork IT
    Council Services
    Criminal Justice
    Dairy Sector
    Department Of Agriculture
    Department Of Arts
    Department Of Education
    Department Of Finance
    Department Of Foreign Affairs
    Department Of Health
    Department Of Justice
    Department Of Social Protection
    Derek Moran
    Digital
    Director Of Corporate Enforcement
    Disability Allowance
    Double Irish
    Dublin
    Dungarvan
    Dunmore East
    Easter Rising
    EATR
    EC
    Ecommerce
    Education
    ERDF
    ESRI
    EU
    European Commission
    European Investment Bank
    FDI
    FIS
    Fishery Harbours
    Fishery Hatbour Centres
    Fishing
    Foster Care
    Foster Home
    Frank Daly
    Fraud
    Garda
    Garda Commissioner
    Gardaí
    Garda Síochána
    Garda Síochána
    Government Procurement
    Grants
    Gulf States
    Hanoi
    Harbour
    HEA
    Health
    Health Service Executive
    Heritage And The Gaeltacht
    Higher Education Authority
    HMRC
    Ho Chi Minh City
    Howth
    HSBC
    HSE
    HSE Contracts
    IBEC
    IBRC
    IDA
    Industrial Relations Act
    Invalidity Pension
    Investment
    Irish Embassy
    Irish Language
    Irish Postmasters Union
    ISIF
    IT Carlow
    Jim Breslin
    Joe Costello
    Joe Duffy
    Joe Hamill
    John Deasy
    John McGuinness
    John Sculley
    Justice
    Kathleen Lynch
    Kerry Group
    Kill
    Killybegs
    Kilmainham
    KPMG
    Labour Court
    Lazards
    Local Authorities
    Local Government
    London
    Marine
    Mark Griffin
    Martin Shanahan
    Merger
    Michael Kelly
    Milk Quotas
    Minister For Health
    Multinationals
    NAMA
    National Broadband Plan
    Niall Cody
    Niamh O'Donoghue
    Noel Waters
    Northern Ireland
    ODCE
    OECD
    Official Languages Bill
    PAC
    Passage East
    PER
    Phil Hogan
    Pig Farmer
    PIMCO
    Postal
    Prime Time
    Procurement
    Project Eagle
    Public Accounts Committee
    Public Procurement
    Public Services Card
    Resilience Ireland
    Revenue
    Revenue Commissioners
    Robert Watt
    Rural Ireland
    Secretary General
    Section 39 Bodies
    Shanghai
    Simon Coveney
    Siteserv
    SIU
    Social Protection
    Social Welfare
    Social Workers
    South East
    Special Investigations Unit
    Special Liquidators
    State Ports
    Stock Exchange
    Strategic Investment Fund
    SUSI
    Switzerland
    Tax Avoidance
    Taxman
    Technological University
    Tendering
    Tenders
    Tom Galvin
    Town Councils
    Trade
    Tralee IT
    Translation
    UK
    United States
    University
    US Congress
    VEC
    Vietnam
    War Of Independence
    Waterford
    Waterford Institute Of Technology
    Waterford IT
    Waterford Memorial
    West Waterford
    Whistleblower
    Whistleblowers
    WIT
    World Bank

JOHN DEASY TD

  • Constituency Office 35, O'Connell Street, Dungarvan, Co Waterford
  • Phone 058-43003​
  • Email john.deasy@oireachtas.ie

Back to Top

  • Home
  • Contact
  • US Envoy
    • Undocumented Irish
  • Biography
  • Memorial
  • Recent
  • Data Privacy Policy