Results 3,181-3,200 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: In early 2008, on the next page, "The commercial property loan book (of the Irish banks) was found to be well diversified on a geographical and sectoral basis [...] this diversification benefit may be offset somewhat by the potential increased comovement between international property prices during a global adverse shock." These were properties which NAMA discounted by over 60%.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Yes. Mark Carney, in his speech - the ... the Governor of the Bank of England - last night said, in looking at their system, "individuals must be held to account". Were individuals ever held to account during your time?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you very much. Thank you, Chairman.

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: I echo the Leader’s sentiments about the sad loss in California of five young Irish people. I also note the President issued a statement from Italy on it and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has expressed his regrets and is assisting the relatives. I welcome the Taoiseach’s announcement yesterday that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: North-South Interconnector: Discussion (16 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome our visitors. One of the numbers we heard about in earlier hearings on this was that overhead transmission involves losses of between 15% and 20%. The longer the length of transmission, the greater the loss. Do we have the figure on that this afternoon?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: North-South Interconnector: Discussion (16 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank Ms Pyper for her reply. As an addendum, the Erne was a joint project from before many of the people in the room were born. Does it provide any distribution capacity in the west of the province? The ESB and the old Northern Ireland Electricity Service, NIES, co-operated on it for many decades. I imagine that there is a transmission network based in Ballyshannon.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: North-South Interconnector: Discussion (16 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: I want to thank the visitors and will not delay them further. We will need to revert to our evidence on whether it is 15%, 17% or 20% of electricity that is lost in transmission. The longer the transmission line, the greater the loss. How does this compare with the 3% increase in bills that would result if some of the network went underground? We will do our sums on that the next day.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: North-South Interconnector: Discussion (16 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: He is.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you, Chairman, and welcome, Mr. Considine. In your opinion, did you feel that, during the course of your tenure in the Department of Finance, that the Department of Finance was well informed by the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator as to matters concerning financial stability?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: If I bring you to page 73 of your own Vol. 1 in the core document, the briefing of the new Minister for Finance in 2004, and Nyberg notes, "However, the brief was silent in relation to credit growth." So that rather contradicts what you've just said to us, that the Minister wasn't briefed in relation to credit growth according to Nyberg in that section on page 73.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: But you didn't do it on that occasion when you were meeting the new Minister. Could I bring you to page 119 of the same document, the briefing of the Minister in the same year, which says that, "[T]he Bank expresses concern about the high rate of credit growth [...] which has been increasing by around 25 per cent." And the advice to the Minister is to say that the Central Bank and the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: On page 75, Nyberg says:There is no evidence that the DoF [Department of Finance] was particularly concerned with prudential matters or in assessing any possible financial stability concerns relating to either individual institutions or the financial system collectively. The annual Financial Stability Reports [to which we've referred] ... did not contain any critical analysis.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: On page 73:In particular, substantive discussions do not appear to have taken place directly between the DoF [Department of Finance] and the CB [Central Bank] on the content of the various Financial Stability Reports, either before or after their publication ... no officials were present and there appear to be no records of the discussion in either departmental [the Department] or CB [Central...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: I read at page 75:The Spring 2007 QEC [quarterly economic commentary] also noted that if the astonishing growth in net foreign borrowing by Irish credit institutions since 2003 had been used to fund the ongoing boom in the housing market, the situation was not sustainable. This particular point does not appear to have been followed up the DoF [Department of Finance] or brought to the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: When you were on the board ... or the council of the ESRI and the board of the Central Bank and the Secretary General, did it come to your attention, because it's been in evidence here, that a man who's code named "Nervous Nelly" in the Department of Finance rang up Professor John FitzGerald to complain about the content of a report? And there was also ... Mr. O'Connell said that he rang the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: And thank you for that. Because I would have some concern that the apparent consensus that's been referred to was, in fact, manufactured because of the way the contrarians may have been silenced in one way or another and I thank you for your clarification because I would not like if such had occurred. The IMF concerns about house prices in Ireland ... you know, double digit growth rates in...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Did the Department monitor commercial property prices at all?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: And a last one, if I may, thank you, Mr. Considine. That ... while there are rumours, I suppose, that the Department of Finance was against directors' compliance statements ... that Nyberg says he could find no evidence that the Department of Finance gave explicit instructions to the Financial Regulator not to proceed with the implementation of that provision. Have you ... like to cast on...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (17 Jun 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you, Chairman. Could I bring you ... you're welcome, Mr. Doyle, could I bring you to page 169 of Vol. 3, in the core documents, DDO?