Results 5,921-5,940 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The Governor then goes on in his report to refer to looking into the future and learning from the mistakes of the past. We are experiencing a terrible housing crisis. Many people cannot afford to buy a home and there is also a shortage of houses. How can the human right to a home ever be vindicated if there is an economic dictatorship dictated by bankers, lenders and large developers?...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: There is an economic dictatorship by the financial markets.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Land speculators got a huge amount, surely?

Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: These are issues here.

Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: These are issues here.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (20 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: 4. To ask the Taoiseach if he has had meetings recently with religious leaders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41693/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Appointments to State Boards (20 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: 8. To ask the Taoiseach the process in place in his Department for appointments to the boards of State agencies and organisations. [43817/14]

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: What categories of people did Mr. Regling speak to in the preparation of his report?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Could I put it to Mr. Regling that it was widespread in a sense, but it really related to an elite and largely to the establishment? Would he agree that perhaps when he says property acquisition as a topic was almost a national obsession in Ireland, and that it was hard to overstate the impact of this cultural attitude, this was perhaps the case among those people to whom he spoke, but the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: In Mr. Regling's report under "areas for investigation" and "policy lessons", can I ask in particular regarding speculation in building land and property, are there lessons in that regard that should find their way into policy changes? By way of background, I refer to the fact that in Europe, the component price of a home that is caused by the land or site value is about 15%, but in Ireland...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The point is that a home is a social need and those who profiteer are allowed to do so. That has been the situation in this country. In page 45 Mr. Regling says, "it appears particularly surprising that there was not a stronger reaction within the banks themselves and among supervisors to lending trends that saw progressive build-up of concentrated loan exposures to and within the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: In his introduction, Professor Lane set the discussion and processes in the euro area within a global economic and monetary system. I would like to dwell a little on that. He said in the written statement with which we were furnished that it was vital to understand that there were several structural changes in the international economy and the international financial system from the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Is Professor Lane not overstating the sovereign states in a sense that Oxfam said that in 2007, at the beginning of the crash, the 80 richest billionaires had $1.5 trillion in the markets at that time. No doubt Professor Lane is familiar with the work of Professor David Harvey, professor of anthropology at the City University of New York. Professor Lane echoes in his opening remarks the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: I will return to Professor Lane's point on the "search for yield". In the 1970s by common consent we had a massive increase in petrodollars by sheiks and oil tycoons and that led to huge lending in the developing world which in turn led to an incredible debt crisis in Africa and Latin America, causing significant suffering of course for millions of people. Does Professor Lane see a...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: On page 2 of the written report furnished by Professor Lane which deals with the search for yield, he refers to synthetic higher risk assets that offered higher interest rates. He states, "Alternative investment products that offered the promise of higher returns also grew rapidly (hedge funds, private equity), with these entities taking on high debt loads in view of the low interest rate...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: I have one more question before I move on to the next point, whether what we have been talking about has a particular relevance to what happened in Ireland. Oxfam stated that the 80 richest people owned about 48% of world wealth in 2007, when the crash happened. Oxfam states that since 1990 income from labour has made up a declining share of gross domestic product across low, middle and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The key question relates to Europe, the euro area and Ireland. Why were countless billions of euro and dollars cascading around the financial markets in this way and why were so many exotic products developed? Why was the money in question not invested in manufacturing, for example, particularly in view of the fact that 25 million people in the European Union were unemployed? Why were...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would Professor Lane agree that the international financial markets as a phenomenon were simply becoming more parasitic? Against the background of the credit explosion, speculation and deregulation internationally, was it inevitable that the regulatory system was going to collapse? In an article which appeared in The New York Timesin 2005, it was claimed that Ireland had become known as the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: It is on page 19.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach has enlightened us on an entirely new departure in Irish politics. He has now cast establishment party leaders - Taoiseach and Ministers - as gifted artists who shower embellishments on their citizenry instead of a solid plan as to what they will do to try to improve the circumstances of the people and the country. Can the Taoiseach share with us what other embellishments are...