Results 6,221-6,240 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: You know, we get the quarterly reports and the annual reports. But I'd have full confidence in the work of the Central Bank and in the work of Patrick Honohan and I think it has proved to be a very good regulator. So I'd be happy with the amalgamation of the two functions, which were always there in the '90s but which were separated sometime in the early noughties.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, I suppose, there is always a human factor and it depends who the Minister is and who the Government are, but in terms of the legal position, yes. And the legal position is straightforward now. And it would be wrong to think that it's fiscal rules that are European fiscal rules imposed on Ireland and that we wouldn’t obey them if we thought we'd get away with it. I mean, we...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: They have a difficult role, first of all, under law. They were brought in informally first and now there's legislation that underpins their role. But ... you could go into great detail defining their role.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: -----but they're really there to give a contrary view-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: -----so that if I come in and I tell you what I'm doing in the budget, there's another reliable institution that can give you a different assessment.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, I mean-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: They have some legal powers that are mandatory and, I suppose, the key one is that when we're doing forecasts for 2016 on which we base the budget, they have to be endorsed by the Fiscal Advisory Council. And if the Fiscal Advisory Council don't ... don't endorse them, I can't use them for the base for a budget. Now, there's a good relationship between forecasters in Finance and them. And...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: But I think they do a very good job, now. I'm not ... I disagree with them at times but I am not critical of them. I think they're doing their job and they're doing it well.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, first of all, it's part of the budgetary process. And, you know, again, going back to the fiscal rules, when we balance the budget in two years' time or maybe sooner, then there's a discretion across the business cycle on the structural deficit to go plus or minus half a per cent. So that's the basic rule and, you know, I intend to adhere to that. On ... yes, one has to make an...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: It went to the Exchequer.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: It would be non-revenue income under the tables ... on the budgetary tables.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, first of all, bank directors now have to pass a probity test. Again - this is a ballpark figure now but I won't be very far out - I think there was 75 or 76 directors across the banks and I think there's only one survivor. So, you know, there was no reappointment of the directors of banks that were there at the time - not because there was a test of the culpability but it was because...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: It's work in progress, yes, and I think it has ... I think we're at a point now where we can see that the majority of difficulties will be resolved, and of course, as the economy grows people go back to work, and again they have the ability to service their mortgages. But it's something we get monthly reports on and we continue to scrutinise. But I'd be loath to say, "Enough has been...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: I don't recall doing that but if I said that, the context would have been that one of the advantages we had in managing the programme was total buy-in and I was constantly saying to Cabinet Ministers if they had to do things under the programme, you know, "Buy in and take ownership of it." So ... in taking ownership of it, we didn't regard it as impositions. Another way of putting it was,...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: I wouldn't, no. The troika, across the table from me, and they were over every three months for three years, they were all equal partners. Sometimes, like, the ECB specialised in banking issues and funding issues whereas the Commission had an overreach and the IMF were more in the same space as the Commission with a view on most issues. Unless he's talking about the relationships when they...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, they meet regularly and they discuss, you know, all the banking issues - Central Bank, Finance and NTMA. And they report to me as a matter of routine but if there's any particular problem, they report to me, you know, more than in a routine manner so, yes, I think it works.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: I think it's monthly but there's a regular flow of information, if that's the point you're getting at.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Whether it's temporary or permanent is a matter for the Taoiseach and whoever the next Taoiseach is. It's a ... it's really ... there is a lot of, in my view, exaggeration about its role, and the criticism of it I don't agree with. It's effectively another Cabinet sub-committee, and it was a Cabinet sub-committee designed and put in place to deal on a weekly basis with the programme. I...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: It hasn't lapsed because it continues to fulfil a useful function but it's not as central to Government business as it was when we were conducting our programme.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Michael Noonan: Well, the Wright report criticism, as I recall it, was focused principally on the fact that, in comparison to comparable treasuries, it didn't have a large number of people that were qualified in economics. I think that was the ... one of the drivers there. And since the previous assistant secretary, and continued with the present assistant secretary, there has been a huge intake of people...