Results 3,421-3,440 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Government Economic and Evaluation Service (7 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I have tabled this matter because the work of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service is most valuable. It is an essential part of the work being done by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Harris. It is...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Government Economic and Evaluation Service (7 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive and wide-ranging reply. The open policy dialogue he mentioned is a credit to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and his Department. It is also vitally necessary that it is not in any way subverted by people with favourite projects who try to get them through without evaluation. It is more welcome that the skills deficits noted...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Electoral Commission in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: €64 billion.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you, Chairman, and welcome back, Mr. Cowen. On page 1 of your witness statement you state that the focus of the work of the domestic standing group became concentrated on Irish Nationwide Building Society as a result of negative news reporting that emanated from Reuters. In your opinion, does that reflect a worrying failing of the regulatory regime, relying on reports from an external...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: You do refer in paragraph 258 of your statement that, you use the words "In the absence of specific problems being detected at micro prudential level." So we did have faults in the system, at micro-prudential-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: You've an important statement also point 177, you say, "The continuous increase in Central Bank (both Irish and European) funding also undermined the financial system as a whole." Was Irish banking becoming addicted to the medicine that was designed to cure a problem and did that allow the ECB to bounce you into the programme?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you, Chairman. The ELA, was that monitored by the Cabinet or did it come across us as a very sudden and unpleasant surprise?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Yes, you used the ... words with Deputy Murphy, you were told "You're on your own", but they were in it too because, as you say, that increase in Central Bank support was both Irish and European. So would they not stay on board with you at that stage?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Looking at the two banks which were in the worst trouble, should we not have had in the system, particularly in INBS ... that this had been building up over a number of years and it should have been brought to you, you know, from the regulator and from the Central Bank rather than have it be the subject of the Reuters' story that you had to then take account of and measures------

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: How can a Government respond to those institutional failures because it all ends up on the Taoiseach's desk?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

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

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you. Did you ever challenge the firms who advised the Department of Finance, the regulator or the NTMA after the final NAMA figures were known?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Shouldn't you have insisted on the whole lot of them supplying you with P45s on the night of 29 September? Shouldn't they have left? The penalty for that kind of failure is ... you know, you're bad at running a shop, it shuts down. These guys were hopeless-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Thank you, Chair. On their record, should they not have resigned that night?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Does it illustrate moral hazard that those who were at the centre of this largely succeeded in making other people pay for their mistakes?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Should there be compulsory rotation or turnover of accountants?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Should we separate the-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: My microphone is on but the phone is somewhere else.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: Should we separate auditing from consultancy services? In some of the evidence presented, there seemed to be too close a connection between auditors, the other departments of the audit firms, and the body they were supposed to be auditing in the public interest.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Sean Barrett: You refer, in paragraph 25 in your own statement, Mr. Cowen, that the analysis was "hopelessly optimistic". Should a haircut have been applied to the people who supplied what turned out to be unreliable advice to the Government and, indeed, to the banks?