Results 27,961-27,980 of 34,872 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Will Mr. Moran send us a note on the matter?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Will Mr. Moran forward a note on the position on VAT? Will he also forward information on the amount of debt removed from the balance sheet?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Will Mr. Moran provide a note on the position on VAT?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: In regard to IBRC, the signs are that further funding will not be required, which sounds like good news. If there is a surplus at the end of the process, where does it go? Mr. Moran referred to unpaid creditors.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: In respect of NAMA, what are Mr. Moran's views on an earlier wind-up? Is it a good thing if we can at least recover par or does he believe we should hold out longer and perhaps make a profit, thereby bringing down the net cost of the banking investment to well below the €40 billion we have been discussing?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Moran referred to projections for how the banking sector in Ireland will look in 2020. ACC Bank, Danske Bank and Bank of Scotland have either moved out of the Irish market or are winding down their operations here. We are facing a situation, in other words, where we will have very few banks and very little competition. I do not see that issue being fully addressed in the documents to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: The insurance compensation fund had a balance going into 2013 of €735 million. How do issues such as Setanta Insurance going into liquidation impact on that fund? Do Setanta Insurance and Quinn Insurance, for instance, have a call on the fund?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Is Mr. Carville telling me that the Department has given the special liquidators a blank cheque?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Give me some indication of the parameters set by the Department.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Tell me about the tender process. As we know, the legislation was rushed through the Dáil on a particular night in February 2013, although we understand it had been drafted the previous November. Therefore, although the legislation may have been rushed through the Chamber, it was not rushed legislation but was prepared carefully and in a considered manner. Tell me about the tendering...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Can I have a ballpark figure? Is it €100 million, €200 million, €500 million or €60 million?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: What Mr. Carville is essentially saying sounds like the tribunal mechanism, namely, that hourly or daily rates were agreed, based on the NAMA rates. Therefore, whether it goes on for six months or three years, the longer the process takes, the more hours are involved. The early successful conclusion of the project, meaning a lesser transfer to NAMA, was probably a bonus. It sounds like a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: This issue is important. We have been talking for ten minutes about the costs of the liquidation of Anglo Irish Bank, but have not heard a single figure mentioned yet. I repeat that the response sounds like the answer we would have got to a question on the cost of a tribunal, that it all depends. Mr. Moran can see how we can see no difference.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: I understand Mr. Moran does not have the information with him.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Let me put it on the record that I am on Mr. Moran's side on this. I believe it was the right decision to liquidate and believe the Department is carrying out the right process. I am happy the Department is getting the various loan fund packages and that it is all happening. Perhaps Mr. Moran cannot provide this information, but does he know what fees the liquidator has been paid to date,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Moran knows what I am getting at. What fees have been paid? He has given a good context and has compared the cost of the liquidator's staff versus what the cost of what it would have been to pay the staff in the IBRC if it had continued to manage down the bank in its own time. Does he have a figure here on the estimated annual running cost of the bank or will he send it on to us?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: My next question is, by what kind of benchmark can we judge this? That is one type of benchmark by which we can judge the outcome of this process. It is very difficult to find effective benchmarks, but the other one I would suggest is a consideration of how the cost of winding down the €20 billion in Anglo Irish Bank compares with the costs incurred by NAMA for a proportionate...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: In Europe, where did Ireland stand at the end of 2008? I refer to the balance sheet of the Irish banks relative to GDP. Where does Ireland now stand? Are we way above the European 4% figure? Perhaps Mr. Moran did not expect this question.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: What about now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012 (8 May 2014)

Seán Fleming: European economies had greater reliance on the banks relative to the size of their economies and so there was a greater move to protect each country's national banks. We nationalised our banks and Mr. Moran is now calling for denationalisation. That is the Irish view. Is it also the European view?