Results 2,321-2,340 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I am just acknowledging what the witness said, that it was a period during which the responsibility was national. Mr. Nava in his own book, Economics and Policies of an Enlarged Europe, has cast doubts on whether there were sufficient gains from a common currency, with the benefits to be a mere 0.5% of EU GDP in the mid-80s, while other authors put this figure at 1%. Ireland trades primarily...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Chairman and Mr. Nava.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank Mr. Nava for attending. In reply to Senator O'Keeffe's question, he said he was 90% happier than when he took up office. He then said it is presumptuous to claim that these reforms have consigned financial and particularly banking crises to history. He gave an optimistic view and I hope that will the case, but I refer to the legacy issues faced by the committee. Living standards...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the work of journalists in dealing with the HSBC bank's facilitation of large scale tax dodging. Margaret Hodge, MP, the chair of the Westminster Public Accounts Committee, said that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has been far too lenient in taking up battles against corporate tax avoidance. The famed French economist, Thomas Piketty, said the offshore industry is a major...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: ECOFIN Briefings: Minister for Finance (10 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: The Minister is welcome, as always. I wonder whether the fault is the lack of an exit mechanism in the euro. He made a comment several years ago about feta cheese which was taken as humour, whereas I think his point was that Greece needs to export more. It is stuck at a fixed exchange rate compared to the drachma. I predict that this problem will recur despite efforts to make up for it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: ECOFIN Briefings: Minister for Finance (10 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: It is worrying to hear that 16 countries are in trouble of some kind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: ECOFIN Briefings: Minister for Finance (10 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: Could there be a more open cost-benefit analysis of the strategic investment plans? When they do not work they leave the debt mountain in place and we do not get the increase in GDP. There is a "free money from Brussels" syndrome in spending that money. I hope there is a high standard of project appraisal to prevent a recurrence. The anti-money-laundering directive and the anti-abuse...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: daa: Chairman Designate (10 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Mr. Ó Ríordáin to the meeting. I will try not to overlap with the questions raised by my colleague Senator Darragh O'Brien. While I acknowledge the difficulties around security the current arrangements in this regard from the customer point of view are a hassle. While the staff are very courteous security arrangements are making travel an ordeal. I believe...

Seanad: Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and note that 15 of the 18 amendments have been proposed by the Minister. Consequently, I am glad he is listening to opinion on this legislation. Senator Craughwell has raised very important points, which also were mentioned by Senators Michael D'Arcy and Cummins. This is an appalling addiction and whereas cigarettes and alcohol take a long time, this can...

Seanad: Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: There is one aspect the Minister of State might discuss with his officials before Report Stage. Some of these fellows exist in the cloud. The Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, had to amend the Finance Act to make corporations declare a residence, although they had an extra year to decide where they would like to be resident. In this case, the important point is that we are not quite sure...

Seanad: Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I support the amendment. We debated this issue in November and one of the Government backbenchers in my county sent me an email on the decision made at the time. Appropriately, he had been photographed beside the statue of a horse, as the email announced that the horse and greyhound fund was being increased by 26% to €68 million, of which 80% was to go to the horse racing industry....

Seanad: Private Rental Sector: Motion (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: Has the Cathaoirleach invited me to associate myself with Senator Craughwell?

Seanad: Private Rental Sector: Motion (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I am delighted to do so and I thank the Cathaoirleach.

Seanad: Private Rental Sector: Motion (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I will and I thank the Cathaoirleach.

Seanad: Private Rental Sector: Motion (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State. This is the most important issue facing us and we have to learn the lessons of the collapse. In this regard, the banking inquiry is coming to terms with some of the problems that arise on a daily basis. We lost the building society movement. Historically, that was the way people were able to acquire houses and there was a very high rate of home...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Professor FitzGerald. There is a quote that reflects a lot of what we have been talking about this morning from the IMF multi-country report published just last month on the housing recoveries in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. It states:Asset prices and other financial variables can help improve estimates of potential GDP. Most methodologies for estimating potential...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: The contrast is with not taking into account credit developments, housing bubbles, interest-rate movements and financial developments. Professor FitzGerald said the single currency and monetary union required governments to behave differently. Can he expand on that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: The monetary union required governments to act differently from 1999, as Professor FitzGerald said in the introduction. There is the old examiner's question: "Discuss...". What would "acting differently" have meant if we had the benefit of hindsight?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: There seems to be evidence from previous witnesses that in terms of joining the single currency in 1999 to 2006 those were crucial years and there was not a policy response such as that the Government should behave differently. What does Professor FitzGerald think happened in that period?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Feb 2015)

Sean Barrett: A Nervous Nellie man in the Department of Finance.