Results 6,341-6,360 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

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

Michael Noonan: But it then goes into the Central Bank books-----

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

Michael Noonan: -----as surplus profit, so the following year it comes back to the Exchequer. So the effective rate is very, very low, and that is where the big gain is for us.

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

Michael Noonan: Well, I'll come to that now. What happened after that then was the NTMA advised that the 40-year bond would be a good idea. And when we put it to Frankfurt, they wouldn't entertain it, and then there was a deadlock. And then somebody suggested to me that there was a different way of doing it if we had a series of bonds of different duration-----

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

Michael Noonan: Part of the package were ... some of them run out to 40 years, like, and others are early and have to be redeemed earlier. Now, there was a schedule drawn up then-----

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

Michael Noonan: -----of when they have to go to the market and this was the arrangement as long as there was some kind of risk to financial stability. Now every so often the Central Bank revisits it and says, you know, "You'll have to pay these off sooner." But what we have paid off almost completely now, and this is subject to checking-----

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

Michael Noonan: Do you remember the year that we had big political controversy about the €3.1 billion in March and we got Bank of Ireland-----

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

Michael Noonan: -----to repo it for us? That's almost unwound at this stage, I understand.

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

Michael Noonan: But it's a function of the bank.

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

Michael Noonan: The last time there was pressure put on me by Frankfurt was when we decided to repay the IMF.

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

Michael Noonan: They said, "You're repaying the IMF and we did this for you, why don't you repay us?" I said, "Because we gain a lot of money if we repay the IMF; we only get grief if we repay you." But they didn't like it, you know. But they revisit every so often, so I can't give you an absolute guarantee that they won't change the schedule.

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

Michael Noonan: There's minor-----

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

Michael Noonan: There's minor changes in it. I can get it for you but I would say ... I mean it's ... I have to ask for the information because it's the Central Bank function. I would think they have maybe paid back €0.75 billion ahead of schedule. It's small anyway, you know.

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

Michael Noonan: You're asking me a criminal law question.

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

Michael Noonan: Where I have the expertise at all, it's not in criminal law, you know. I mean, my personal opinion - but you're not to take this as a-----

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

Michael Noonan: -----as an authoritative view - I think it probably is but I think the process is slow. But I can understand why the process is slow because people are afraid, who are organising the prosecutions, of making a mistake in process and someone will walk out the door who quite clearly shouldn't walk out the door.

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

Michael Noonan: Yes, I mean, the trackers have been a problem all the time and I haven't come up with any solution for the trackers. I suppose, for the people who have tracker mortgages, the assurance is that they hold their trackers at the interest rates that was agreed at the time. I mean, I saw proposals that ... saying we should bring down the variable and increase the trackers but, you know, try that...

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

Michael Noonan: Well, I suppose the good news over the summer was that AIB took another quarter off it. They're offering a standard rate now of 3.65%, and they are going into the market, they tell me, in a strong advertising campaign to try and get people to switch.

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

Michael Noonan: Well, first of all, they didn't brief me personally. They came and they briefed the Fine Gael Front Bench.

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

Michael Noonan: That was the way it was done. I can't recall whether there was a discussion on burden-sharing or not. Our policy position was clear. We had said all the time that we believed that not only subordinated bonds should be haircut but the senior bonds should also be involved in burden-sharing, provided that the Central Bank agreed with our position. But nobody said you shouldn't follow that...

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

Michael Noonan: Well, I think we were, I was, you know, we were only three weeks in office, so it was driven at that stage by the political side through the ... I mean, it was a commitment we made in the election manifesto. It was reflected in the programme for Government, always with the assent of the European Central Bank and, in the early days in government, we said if we're recapitalising the banks,...