Results 5,021-5,040 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: As Mr. Hall has said, it should not come down to this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Of the 325 cases IMHO has resolved, did they all involve owner-occupiers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Are the details publicised? I do not mean the names, but the details of the resolution.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: On what basis are the write-downs made? What criteria are applied in regard to the write-downs or whatever happens?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: In general, I would say that the banks act in an arbitrary fashion in this regard. The so-called split mortgage solution, of hanging people with debt into their old age and hanging it on their children after them if they inherit the home, is not a solution but tortuous cruelty over a lifetime. All the groups here have done massive advocacy and have been correct to criticise the banks and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: People should engage, but I do not know why Mr. Hall just writes off the idea that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Organisations such as Mr. Hall's, which have huge authority owing to the great amount of work they have done, should in my view be looking at a bigger picture in this. Otherwise we will have a situation whereby people will have this millstone around their neck for the next 50 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Not everyone has a husband or wife.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: If one does not have a wife to bail one out, where does one go?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: The representative from the Phoenix Project answered the question about fees. Can the other witnesses indicate whether they receive any fees or retainers from the banks with which they deal?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: From what I know about Mr. Burgess, which is only through hearing him on the media, I suspect he believes in capitalism red in tooth and claw. How can he say that a sustainable solution is an interest only situation for a worker on the average wage who was blackmailed by the extortion that was happening in housing mortgages? These people wanted a house to start a family or for whatever...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Actually it is unsustainable. We have no rent controls and landlords are a law unto themselves. Sin scéal eile that we do not have time to debate. Somebody - I think it was Mr. Maguire - described the AIB as the most aggressive bank in driving repossessions. Would he, therefore, disagree with the arrangement between the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, IMHO, and AIB which they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Would Mr. Maguire say that about the 325 mortgages the IMHO and AIB claim to have been restructured?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: This applies to a very small minority of people in distress.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: That does not hold out a comforting vista for the huge number of people who are in mortgage distress.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: I acknowledge that the various groups represented before us have worked very hard on this issue but I have to say to Mr. Maguire that his bankruptcy idea holds out a torturous road for something that should be much simpler. In respect of banks and bond holders that have been bailed out at huge cost to the taxpayer, why does he not argue for a universal solution of write downs for owner...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Just give them time to answer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Perhaps they could answer the question when they are responding to the next speaker.

Current Crisis in Ukraine: Motion (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: I wish to move my amendment No. 2.

Current Crisis in Ukraine: Motion (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: I refer to my amendment No. 2 to the Government motion. The hypocrisy of the Government and of the European Union in its Machiavellian manoeuvring in the Ukraine is breathtaking. The misfortune of the people of the Ukraine was to be trapped for decades in a Stalinist dictatorship. It was a very brutal regime dominated by Russia. When Stalinism collapsed control passed to robber barons and...