Results 2,481-2,500 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: We rely a lot, as Dr. Byrne knows from the Constitution, on the Comptroller and Auditor General to help in these matters. Would Dr. Byrne strengthen the powers of the Comptroller and Auditor General in any way to deal with the issues she has been raising with us this morning?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Dr. Byrne mentions on page 7 the register of liabilities. It seems plausible that a politician who is in debt will be more susceptible to the kind of conduct Dr. Byrne has been describing. How does that work in the countries she mentioned, for example, Australia, Finland, New Zealand and so on?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Chairman. As to banning beauty contests in favour of auctions, why have they been turned down so many times? Dr. Byrne said it and Professor Colm McCarthy says it, namely, we still want something that is not open and transparent like the auction would be.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Mr. McDonald. He talked about tax breaks and so on. Would he have misgivings about real estate investment trusts, REITs?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: The Kenny report states the President, when asked to sign the Bill, should refer it to the Supreme Court under Article 26 of the Constitution. In fact, Dr. Elaine Byrne records that the secretary in the President's office was quite cross about this. Was it an own goal by Mr. Justice Kenny? I have never seen a report stating that if one is worried that what is being recommended is...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I think it arose first on the corner of Hume Street and then in a case near Swords, but how did the State come to be on the hook when planning permission was refused? I think €1.9 million was paid in 1989 because planning permission had been refused. That meant the officials in the council had to undertake the rezoning which Mr. McDonald strongly and rightly criticised. I am trying...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I refer to development levies. Do they make local authorities which are supposed to be adjudicating on this issue in the wider national interest partners in allowing projects to go ahead? I am thinking of the case of Meath County Council in rezoning parts of Carton which were turned down by An Bord Pleanála. The incentive for the council and the officials was that...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I note the publication of a petition last Wednesday by 51 eminent scientists, including Boyle medal winners, arguing that the new strategy for science should reconsider balancing the funding of science to strongly support not only applied or oriented basic research but also basic research across the full range of scientific disciplines. There is a view that knowledge cannot be trapped into...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Let us assess this from the point of view of the country, not what suits the officials in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, who have a long tradition of allowing cartels to operate between airlines, with huge fares and so on. They are so keen to have Aer Lingus absorbed into British Airways. It is not in the Irish national interest that it should do so, and we need a debate in...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Dr. Mercille is very welcome. According to an earlier article he wrote, only two of the journalists who wrote about the crash in Ireland were qualified in economics. Was this part of Dr. Mercille's studies or have I mistaken him for a different author?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Does the lack of training about which Dr. Mercille has spoken not leave them hugely vulnerable to the PR sector? Not knowing the stuff they reproduce the PR handouts after lunch, like Dr. Mercille said in an earlier example.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: In his studies of the articles, did Dr. Mercille ever come across any article which stated house prices were lower which was really good news?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I am asking whether in all of his studies in this period did anybody say low house prices means they are more affordable which is good news?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Is there a danger that we are taking this topic too seriously? If, on the advice of a racing correspondent, I continuously back slow horses do I blame him or her, the media or myself for not absorbing information and deciding to go for faster horses? Should I decide correspondent Bloggs is unreliable in my investment policies with regard to going to Leopardstown?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: On page 6 Dr. Mercille criticises real estate investment trusts, REITs. They were also heavily criticised in the Seanad debate on the Finance Bill. What would Dr. Mercille do about them?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: Dr. Mercille started his career in Magill, and several times during these hearings we have examined Canada as an example of a country which did not have a banking crisis. It also seems it did not have a public finance crisis. Are there any lessons from Dr. Mercille's studies in Magilland watching this environment?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Mr. Browne. Did Mr. Browne ever come across in his work - because there are stories on this that have reached the committee - a fast track, certainly by two building societies, and perhaps banks, towards mortgages for journalists?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: The section that Mr. Browne has on page 5 states, "Journalists who continued to feel that they should be doing hard-hitting, critical scrutiny of powerful institutions felt disempowered from doing so." Is that not just life? In all fields of activity one must have courage, one must have convictions, one will encounter obstacles. I know it is a wrong analogy but let us say that Kerry...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Sean Barrett: I would prefer Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who are also among Mr. Browne’s heroes. Mr. Browne referred to the capacity of the public relations, PR, officers to give and withhold information that hard-pressed journalists require to do their work. He also referred to the growth of PR to being four times the number of journalists in the United States. I recall Mr....