Results 7,601-7,620 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Gormley, you say in page 1 of your written statement, "It’s a fact that two thirds of what is known euphemistically as the ‘fiscal adjustment’, which led to the recovery, was made by the Green Party in government." You say that "Green Party TDs and Senators voted for these cut backs and tax increases, convinced that this was the correct course of action, while also...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And on the democratic mandate, Mr. Gormley?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, I am afraid I am not in a space where I can debate that with you just now, Mr. Gormley, but I would not act in the way you suggest. Ms Harney, you say in your statement, "I am proud of the economic and social achievements over the period [in government].", and in the Oireachtas core documents, Vol. 2, it says, I'll quote very briefly, the Progressive Democrats 2007 election manifesto...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Finally-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, finally, Ms Harney, in evidence to this inquiry, Mr. McWilliams ... referring to a "Prime Time" October 2003, where he said: The Irish housing market is a scam. It is an enormous financial swindle that could potentially confine an entire generation of young Irish people to years of bad debt. Far from being a reflection of economic vitality and fundamental demand the housing bubble...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Drury, in a presentation to the board of Anglo dated 26 September 2008 - shortly after you left the bank or not too long after - entitled "Strategic Options", David Drumm notes that the market sees Anglo as a monoline bank with concentration risk in commercial property and he proposes a merger with IL and P which would create a more diversified business model. In your opinion, did the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: No, I understand that, Mr. Drury, but-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Drury, you were a director from 2002 to 2008 and I'd just like to take you through, very briefly, the rate of growth in Anglo lending, corresponding largely with that time, and Nyberg and other reports refer to this. But, in 2002, from annual reports, Anglo had €13.3 billion in loans. In 2003, that went up by €4 billion. It went up by €7 billion in 2004; by...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Mr. Drury, just for time, I'll move on. At that period as well, the profit growth was also stellar - 2003, 33%; increasing for most years up to 46% growth in 2007. Did profit growth at this exponential rate risk leading to reckless lending in Anglo?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: How would you explain then, Mr. Drury, that of the loans that went from Anglo to NAMA, €31.97 billion worth, or 92% of the total book that went to NAMA, were loans given out by way of exception to stated credit policy? Source is IBRC, Vol. 2, page 3.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Can we look at Vol. 2, page 78, please, and this, Mr. Drury, refers to the bonuses in Anglo Irish Bank, the ten top bonus between 2001 and 2008. I'm caught for time here-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----but if we take the right-hand column, I'll just take the top person, who I assume is the same person in each of those years, and the right-hand column shows, in 2001 for this person, a bonus of €1.7 million; 2002, €1.2 million; 2003, €1.4 million; 2004, €1.6 million; 2005, €1.5 million; 2006, €1.9 million; and 2007, €2 million. In...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Finally, Mr. Drury, would you ... you referred in, perhaps, the penultimate paragraph of your verbal evidence today about "gorging", we "gorging" in the boom years, "insatiable appetites", and I think you said, "I sat there myself and ate more than I needed." I'd like to ask you who you're speaking about when you say "we"? And also, I'd like to ask you would you include that as you describe...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (30 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would that be the type of activity you would be referring to or something else?