Results 3,361-3,380 of 7,082 for speaker:John Paul Phelan

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Thank you, Chairman. You've caught me by surprise there. Gentlemen, I've a general question at the start about risk assessment and maybe it's more appropriate for Mr. Dobey, but feel free to answer, Mr. O'Rourke, if you wish. With regards to the preparation of the firm's annual audit plan, and the risk assessment underpinning it, did the risk assessment approach adopted change to meet the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Briefly.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: No, no, and I'm not wishing to cut you short, but I only have limited time and I've a whole series of questions that I wish to ask. Did you see the evidence from your counterparts yesterday from Deloitte and Touche?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. I want to put a quote to you from Mr. Fitzpatrick from yesterday. I asked him whether ... he's the head of audit in Deloitte ... whether they do bank auditing differently now than they did when they were auditing Ulster Bank prior to the collapse and in light of the findings of the Nyberg report. His response was:I wouldn't ... I wouldn't say we've done it differently. I think that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Is the physical way that an audit is conducted different in any respect?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: In any substantial way.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. Can I ask, in relation to the auditing of AIB, how many people are involved in the team in total? I don't want to know particularly about individuals, but what sorts of grades of staff are we talking about?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: How many in total then? Twenty-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Twenty.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. And typically then would the ... and the phrase I used yesterday was the "grunt work" of the audit be carried out by more junior members of staff, with senior partners supervising their work or-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: So most of the 200 would be pretty junior?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay, that's grand.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: I want to turn to the Nyberg report, page 56, paragraph 3.6.2 - you'll be familiar with it, I would think, anyway, gentlemen - where he says, "The commission would have expected a bank auditor exercising necessary professional scepticism to have concerns where there were growing property and funding exposures, combined with material governance failings." Do you accept that finding of the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: I only have 40 seconds left.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: In relation to that comment, does it apply to your auditing of AIB?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. Finally, earlier, very early, much earlier in our inquiry, Professor William Black was here. He was an American ex-regulator and under questioning from me he made the following quote, he ... in relation to auditors:The straightforward answer is not to allow the bankers to pick the auditors. There should instead be a panel of qualified auditors that are assigned to them, and we should...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Thank you.

Topical Issue Debate: Radio Broadcasting (19 May 2015)

John Paul Phelan: I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and the Minister for attending to respond. This issue is the funding of local radio. Over the course of the last 20 years no other medium in this country has expanded as rapidly to the four corners of the island as local radio. There are 34 or 35 local radio stations operating in the Republic of Ireland at present but their access to...