Results 6,281-6,300 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would that amount or not amount to recklessness, just what you said there, Mr. Daly?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, no, I understand that, Mr. Daly, and you have explained that previously.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, Mr. Daly, somebody who thinks the forces of gravity are suspended, jumps off buildings and thinks they will float. Now, tragically in some cases it happens with people who are disturbed or are on psychedelic drugs. Now, presumably, that didn't apply to the banks when they were dealing with the developers. But, really, the list that you have outlined here - could I put it to you like...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes but ... which begs the question as to why. Now, banks presumably are hard-nosed business enterprises who shouldn't be influenced by loose talk. I mean if a scientist is sitting in a pub and everybody around him is saying there is no such thing as gravity ... I mean there is a lot going on but he won't believe it, or she won't believe it, but apparently the banks did. How can that be?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well indeed and the banks will be questioned as well no doubt. Mr. McDonagh, you present us with a table on page ten of your introduction showing €34 billion was lent to 29 individual borrowers. You said 12 individuals of these accounted for €22.2 billion, including three total loans greater than €2 billion, nine total loans between €1 billion and €2...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would you say it amounts to recklessness or not on behalf of the banks? In pursuit of this ... there was no mystery of what the banks were after, I assume it was maximisation of profit.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: I won't press you much further on it Mr. McDonagh, I mean what was suggested earlier essentially is that somebody comes in to a bank and says "I have a field north of Mullingar that I want to buy for so many tens of millions", and then by the time it arrives on your desk, it is worth 10% of what the banks lent without any due diligence whatsoever. What would you call that? Could you put a...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Ok. I'll move on briefly now. Deputy McGrath dealt with the €9 billion in rolled-up interest. I won't ask you to repeat that, but just to comment on the distribution by the individual institutions of that €9 billion in terms of the ... in terms of the actual interest charged to individual institutions. Could you do that briefly please?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you. If I might move on then to an issue that has also been dealt with in the sense of the type of security, or not security, that was given by borrowers, that the banks did or did not demand. That has been dealt with quite comprehensively but can I just ask you finally on that, were there variances by scale of debtor in regard to this practice? You refer to somebody taking paper out...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Mr Daly, on page 16 of your introduction you say "NAMA may realise a surplus of up to €1 billion for the Irish taxpayer by the time it completes its work." Do you mean by this that the projection you make is that when NAMA is wound up you will have paid to the banks the €31.8 billion that was agreed in September 2009 for the loans that you took - you'll have paid that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, okay, but-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Now, can I ask you there, Mr. Daly ... no, I understand the elements are, as I've ... in general as I've outlined, but can I ask you this: is it fair, from the viewpoint of the Irish people, to call this a surplus or a profit? Now, let me just explain. The chief executive told us, on page 3, "NAMA paid the [banks] €5.6 billion more than the private sector market would have...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: November. And then Mr. McDonagh, chief executive, said, "NAMA had to absorb losses arising from the impact of the 25%-30% decline in Irish property values ... right up to the end of 2013." Mr. McDonagh continues, "Essentially, therefore, the institutions [i.e., the banks] would have been paid about €22 billion by the market." In other words, if the supposed rules of the capitalist...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but what-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Can I read the following to you-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Can I put it to you ... Mr. Simon Carswell, a journalist, in a book called Anglo Republic, page 276, says as follows ... I put this to you for a comment, "Critics of NAMA viewed the agency as another bailout for the banks: a political tool to recapitalize them by stealth by overpaying for assets that nobody else in the world would touch, and to deceive the public about the true cost." Would...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: I'm not getting at you personally whatsoever, Mr. Daly, in any sense, but I'm just saying, from the point of view of the taxpayer out there, would you understand if they felt that rather than saying there's a surplus of €1 billion from the whole mess, that we have a loss of €49 billion-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Having-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Apr 2015)

Joe Higgins: Having lost €49 billion already, but may I just go on to the last-----