Results 7,361-7,380 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Mr. Ahern, under the terms of reference of the banking inquiry, one of the issues that has to be looked at is the role of the Oireachtas in the matter of regulatory and supervisory systems and practices. During your term as Taoiseach, do you believe that Oireachtas committees were structured so as to have sufficient authority to effectively examine financial matters, fiscal matters or...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And, Mr. Ahern, issues that witnesses at this inquiry have identified as causing the inflation of a major property bubble - and then which caused a major crash - for example, exponential increase in lending by banks, particularly in property, major speculation and profiteering in building land and rocketing house prices, can you remember being challenged, either by committees of the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, Mr. Ahern, in regard to that issue, would it be fair to say that, in fact, you allowed land speculation to run riot? You may remember, in 2004, it was raised in the Oireachtas, where a syndicate of rich people had bought 11 acres of building land in Stillorgan only four years before, had got planning permission and then sold it for a gain of €32 million, and your Government had...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And was your close relationship with developers and builders a factor in that you didn't take action against them, Mr. Ahern?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, to establish a relationship, Chairman ... Mr. Ahern ... two issues in regard to that. Ms Elaine Byrne in evidence to this inquiry, found that between 1997 and 2007, of the €1.8 million donated to Fianna Fáil, and anything €5,000 or under did not have to be notified, but of what was notified, 35% or €635,970, was from property and construction interests. Is...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Ahern, you said earlier that you take no responsibility for what the banks, or, indeed, the Central Bank or the regulator did. You don't take responsibility for alleged perhaps ... whatever, in that regards. But I put it to you, Mr. Ahern, that you have to take responsibility for this reason; that you launched the Better Regulation in 2004 and in your foreword it's quite clear that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, did your attitude towards light-touch regulation - evidence was given that the IFSC was a factor, that you didn't want to affect that - allow the type of light-touch regulation under which the banks profiteered?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Last point then Chairman and Mr. Ahern is this. Mr. Ahern, you said in your opening speech page 2: The main economic problems facing Ireland in the mid-1990s were high unemployment, net emigration, relatively low incomes and the need for increased productivity. A decade later these problems were substantially solved. And then you said Mr. Ahern in page 19, reminding younger Members of...

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

Joe Higgins: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, gentlemen. Mr. Dunne, could I just ask you first, perhaps, if you could outline the process surrounding your appointment as a board member to the Central Bank, just, in relation to how you were approached? Was there a nomination of selection process, or a ... and then, later, a renomination, extension of tenure process, please?

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

Joe Higgins: So, you were appointed to the board of the Financial Regulator then, in 2003, you were on board of the Central Bank and of the Regulator.

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

Joe Higgins: Yes. Now, you say in your statement, Mr. Dunne, in page 1, "I believe that my role within IBEC and perhaps more especially in the successful conclusion and operation of the merged organisation [I take it that that's the Federated Union of Employers and the Confederation of Irish Industry, becoming IBEC] was a significant factor in my being asked to join the board of the Irish Financial...

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

Joe Higgins: Yes, but then you say, a little bit further on, Mr. Dunne, "I was appointed to the Board of the Financial Regulator - the Authority as it was called - as a non-executive director in 2003 and am therefore unable to comment from an IBEC perspective on any of the issues raised in the Committee's terms of reference for my appearance before it." There's a, kind of, a contradiction there, I would-----

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

Joe Higgins: Okay. Mr. Dunne, both the regulatory authority and the Central Bank board had some common membership. Can you remember how many members of the regulator board was also on the Central Bank?

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

Joe Higgins: Okay, and in the ... what ... why were they on the Central Bank board and what did they bring to the board?

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

Joe Higgins: And then, in the course of the 2000s, Mr. Dunne, in what is commonly now understood to be the blowing up of a very big bubble in property and lending, were you aware of the extent of lending by banks for the property sector?

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

Joe Higgins: Was that discussed in great detail on either of the two boards?

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

Joe Higgins: What were ... what was the feeling in relation to this?

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

Joe Higgins: At the same time, Mr. Dunne, you were a vastly experienced person in business. I mean, would you have been aware of the experience in the Scandinavian countries, for example, in the 80s and 90s, of a significant bubble and bank crash that caused quite considerable problems for the peoples of those countries?

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

Joe Higgins: Yes, but shouldn't lights had been flashing, very, very strongly?

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

Joe Higgins: Was it a factor, Mr. Dunne, as several witnesses have given evidence, that there was a predilection for so-called light-touch regulation, and a reluctance to interfere with the capitalist marketplace? Was that a factor?