Results 3,381-3,400 of 14,090 for speaker:Marc MacSharry
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: And how could that have been achieved and what did you suggest specifically that wasn't followed?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: No, I understand that, but what I'm trying to get to is did you as ... given your experience as Secretary General of three different Departments and now the head of the Central Bank, ever give any tangibles: "Minister, what we think in the Central Bank is you need to put up stamp duty, you need to cut the tax things, you need to do this, that or the other."? Are there any specifics that you...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Right, I appreciate that-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: No, I know it doesn't set fiscal policy but you advise, so do you just advise, for want of a better expression, in a very woolly, general way fiscal policy, "You need to cool the market", or did you have any role to put forward tangibles and say, "Look, put up stamp duty, take down this, put in the other"? Were there no specifics?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Okay.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Okay, I have to move on because it's taking too much time. Your role as a member of the governing council of the ECB, have you a fiduciary duty in that role to the ECB?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: No, is the responsibility to the ECB?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: In your role as head of the Central Bank, have you a fiduciary duty to the Central Bank or who are you overall responsible to?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Okay. Was it difficult to maintain a line of difference between the two roles?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: My time is running out so ... in reality, is it fair to say that in your role at the ECB you had to be party and conscious and reflect decisions and thought processes that were good for the entire ECB rather than the individual benefit of Ireland?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Is that true or not?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Okay so-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Had you an equal voice or were bigger players' opinions weighted in a preferential way ... such as Germany, France ... large countries-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: So, in effect, because of the size of their economy, there is, in practice, a bigger weighting for their opinions?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Yes or no?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: You mentioned in your statement that, "Attempts to influence the flow of external funds into Ireland would have amounted to capital controls which would have been inconsistent with monetary union." That's on page 7 of your statement. So, when interest rates were at 2% and growth rates were at 5%, 6%, 7%, 8% here, did you ever say, for example, in the ECB, ''Look, we need interest rates to...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Yes. This ... this is the key to my point. When you were conscious of giving fiscal advice, that there was too much of a pro-cyclical view being taken on a national basis in fiscal policy, what were you doing in an international context to help cool the market from an Irish perspective?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: Which was the European perspective. So, again, back to my original question. Were you hampered in your work as Central Bank chief here by your responsibilities to the ECB in the context of market intervention?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: No, I'm putting it that way-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Marc MacSharry: The ... under Article 14.3, the ECB can intervene to give guidelines and directions to the bank. This is Article 14.3 of the treaty of the ECB. Why was this never invoked, or sought to be invoked, by you to help cool the market in this country?