Results 3,161-3,180 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Garda Síochána (Policing Authority and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Second Stage (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I have mentioned some of the issues in Part 1 - sections 1 to 7 - of the Bill, so I will not go back over them. Part 2 of the Bill relates to the personnel and organisation of the Garda Síochána. On the appointments issue, section 8 of the Government's Bill sets out that the Garda Commissioner and any deputy Garda Commissioners are to be appointed by the Government and the...

Garda Síochána (Policing Authority and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Second Stage (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: No problem. As the Minister will be well aware, Deputy Clare Daly and I introduced Garda Bills in 2013 and 2014. The Garda authority proposed in our legislation is unrecognisable in the authority proposed in the Bill before us. I do not know how the Minister can claim the authority is independent when it clearly has the paws of the Government all over it. Lack of speaking time means I...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I am a little taken aback by the position which the Tánaiste is taking on NAMA. I raised this issue with her before the summer recess, when I marked her card that all was not well with NAMA. I told her that it would do her no favour to do nothing about this. Since then, a lot more questions than answers have been thrown up. At a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on 9 July,...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: This is a seriously Southern problem. Cerberus went to some of the major developer players. Before it bought the portfolio, a group of individuals went around to the big developers and asked them whether they would buy their loans back for 50p in the pound. What happened? They jumped at it. However, they had to pay a fixer's fee. The £7 million in the Isle of Man that we have been...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: Given that Cerberus is under criminal investigation in two countries for Project Eagle, why has that company not been disqualified from Project Arrow? How, in God's name, can the Government tolerate that? This is a portfolio with a par value of €7.2 billion which NAMA is threatening to sell for something in the region of €1 billion. Some 50% of the portfolio is residential in...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: The Tánaiste comes from an accountancy background and she is the leader of the Labour Party. I cannot believe that she is happy for all this stuff to be simply tossed around here between ourselves in committees. This requires a proper independent investigation, preferably by people from outside the country. In the contribution sent in by Cerberus, whose representatives refused to go...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: It just does not stack up.

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: The proceeds of the sale of Project Eagle are the proceeds of crime and the Criminal Assets Bureau should now get involved. CAB could get an interim freezing order in the High Court within a few days and stop the profits being taken offshore. We know, for example, that Cerberus staff were forcing borrowers to pay them back loans urgently and were telling frightened borrowers to talk to...

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: They are rotten. NAMA has behaved in a rotten manner.

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I know, and I would not make it lightly.

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: The whole NAMA process requires serious independent scrutiny. I am sure the Tánaiste does not have the answer to my final question, but she might look for it for me. What role did NAMA's Ronnie Hanna, head of asset recovery, play in the sale and purchase of Project Eagle?

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I am only asking for some information. We are not going to find it in this House or the committees. The Government will not get answers from NAMA; it will have to investigate it.

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I have been to the Garda and the National Crime Agency. We need an independent inquiry here.

Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: We need the truth.

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Arts Promotion (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: 18. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in advance of the upcoming budget, the measures she has taken to undertake specific measures to further the promotion of the arts, with regard to the creation of jobs in creative industries and the support of emerging artists, along with the other recommendations in the Irish Music Rights Organisation's report The Socio-Economic...

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Arts Funding (24 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: 24. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if, in view of the upcoming budget, she has had any discussions with the Department of Social Protection in relation to a specific grant to assist artists starting out; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32198/15]

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: In January 2014, US investor Blackstone acquired three properties from Project Platinum for €100 million. It is now looking to offload them for €170 million. That is a profit of 70%, not 7%. Despite the fact the buildings were yielding approximately 6% per annum in rents, while NAMA's cost of money was less than 1%, there was still a panic to sell them. Following PIMCO's...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: Can the Taoiseach tell me why the reserve price was reduced by €60 million? Can he find out if this might be connected to reports regarding a developer whose loans were in Project Eagle and who came to NAMA to complain about being approached by fixers who were seeking a backhander in order for him to buy his loans back at 50p in the pound from Cerberus in the autumn of 2013, months...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I raised this with the Taoiseach before the summer recess. Why does he insist on doing nothing about it? Why does he not want to get answers to the questions that have been raised? We have loads of questions and there are more every week, but we have received no answers. Why is the Taoiseach not interested?

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2015)

Mick Wallace: I get the impression the Taoiseach is trying to hide behind the fig leaf of Oireachtas committees. I have already been to the Garda and I have been to the National Crime Agency, the British authority that is investigating the matter. I have already been to both of them. However, I cannot understand why the Taoiseach does not want to do anything about it. Cerberus is under criminal...