Results 3,801-3,820 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: -----would share my view. I urge the Minister to take a realistic and practical view on this. I will not push the amendment to a vote. This is about tidying up legislation, which is the business of the House. Including this provision begs the question as to why it is there. Does it mean a Minister could approve a plan which did not comply with the law of the State or of the European...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: I understand the Minister's point. It is a belt and braces measure because the chaps in Brussels are watching too much television and they know that nobody in Ireland obeys the law. We must ensure the Minister does. This confirms what Senator Regan has been saying over the last couple of days - I have been arguing against him but I have been incorrect - that we must shape up for Brussels...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: I am speaking on the section and the amendment. There is a crucial issue in question here and there is a great need for clarity. Last night, when I said this could not work, it was interpreted as meaning I was opposed to it. I completely agree with the objectives of the points being made by Senator Fitzgerald. However, I am also saying - I will brook no contradiction on this - it cannot...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: This is a free market economy. I do not like it, but that is the way it is. When I was looking for a mortgage for my house in 1971, the idea of going to a bank never crossed my mind. There was no such thing as bank mortgages; people went to a building society. In 1933, six men who could not get credit anywhere sat in the Teachers' Club in Dublin. They borrowed from each other and lived...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: I will come to that.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: We have dealt with this issue previously since the foundation of the State. Emerging from that, I have given one example, namely, the mutual building societies, which were non-profit making, committed to their members and which had a soft, reasonable and humane approach to debt. Similarly, another member of my union established the Irish credit union movement, which similarly dealt with...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: In some countries it is, but in New Zealand where the Government has done that, it is not the case. It needs more. That has to do with the articles of association.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: I have spent some time in that direction, let us say.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: We are agnostic on it.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: I share Senator Bacik's hopes.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: On a point of order-----
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: It is an attack on the Independents.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: We are Independents.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: Immediately.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: No tax is paid on the money which the SPV pays to NAMA. NAMA has a special purpose vehicle which operates as a separate legal entity at arm's length from NAMA itself. For example, NAMA might decide there is a certain element of rental income which it will securitise and put a price on, and that is made available in a special purpose vehicle. The reasons it is done this way is so that the...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: This discussion goes two ways. Senator Coghlan is absolutely correct in stating that if an issue requiring public representation arises, one puts it on the record and deals with it. Let us not get carried away in deciding where this takes us. In this regard, one should consider what occurs if one goes across the line and discusses making decisions on tendering, the sale of property or...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: Plenty of people were prepared to make comments on how FÃS worked. FÃS was characterised by an absence of governance. Yesterday we approved an audit committee for NAMA. An audit committee will be operating next year and it will consider four or five issues of importance in connection with NAMA's business. Let us consider four: the purchase or sale of property; a tender; the engagement of...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: The sooner, the better. The Minister should issue a guidance chart. The Department of Finance has issued three or four in recent years. One is Welcome to the Board, a document for people on semi-State bodies. Another concerns governance issues. Recently the Department issued a third, an update on how governance should operate. Anybody who does not know how it operates should not be in...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Nov 2009)
Joe O'Toole: That is a special deal.