Results 6,161-6,180 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: As they say in Africa, the lions have a different view of the hunt than the hunters when they-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Finally, Professor Honohan says that nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank and INBS would not be the same as burning bondholders. What should nationalisation, as he advocates, have involved?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Following on from that very point, is an explanation that the very most of what was done in building up the bubble, the huge profits made, speculation etc, was all in fact quite legal?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Is the problem the fact we live in a capitalist society that allows private interests, banks and develops to make massive profits on the backs of people buying homes? Is that the source of many of the problems rather than direct corruption?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Let us explore more about why or why not people in power might be partial to substantial business interests. In her written submission, Dr. Byrne referred to a culture of deference between State authorities, political parties and elected representatives. She stated: “This culture of deference operated in a context where political parties and individual politicians were especially...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Nevertheless, a bank advanced very substantial amounts of money to a former leader of the country to gamble on speculative shares. The Government that person led had actually rescued Allied Irish Banks from its significant loss in respect of the Insurance Corporation of Ireland.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Does it or does it not back up the culture of deference between politicians, banks, etc?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Is it not unlikely that the plumber down the road would be treated in a similar way to both former leaders by the banks?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Dr. Byrne stated that from 1997 to 2007 Fianna Fáil received 35% of its income from property and construction interests. The Progressive Democrats received 34%. Dr. Byrne has stated it appears "the property barons of the 1990s and 2000s replaced the beef barons of the 1980s." Was the financing of political parties at the time wider than this? Is Dr. Byrne aware that in the 1990s...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Rather than narrowing down the issue to property barons replacing the beef barons, it must be realised it is much wider, as I illustrated, in that big, wealthy businesspeople in general-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----support the political system because of the gains they can make from policy.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: In regard to the nexus of property interests and developers, Mr. McDonald relates back to TACA, the fund-raising venture for Fianna Fáil in the 1960s involving significant property interests. He then moved forward to the Galway tent, where developers socialised with senior Fianna Fáil politicians. Does he say there is an unbroken thread from the 1960s to the 2000s in relation to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. McDonald covered extensively the Dublin county development plan from 1991 to 1993. He wrote a series of articles at that time referring to Dublin county. The headline of one of those articles alludes to "where it is possible to boost the value of parcels of land beyond the dreams of avarice", and another headline reads, "Cash in brown paper bags for councillors". In that series of...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Did tribunals make any findings in relation to councillors' activities during that period?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: In 1993 in one of those articles Mr. McDonald referred to a former councillor who, in defending the extensive rezoning in Dublin County Council said, "I have never put a boundary to the onward march of a nation." Mr. McDonald said, "If this type of planning prevails we will start hitting the outskirts of Dublin in or around Kinnegad." When I was rereading that I had echoes of Macbeth being...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: It is more a case of the castle coming to Birnam wood in Mr. McDonald's prognosis.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Did the outskirts of Dublin come to Kinnegad?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: What were or are the implications of that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. McDonald---