Results 7,801-7,820 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: And what the rationale-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Sorry?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Yes. I'm not leading, Chairman, because in minutes of a board meeting where there was to be a merger proposed-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----one of the downsides, according to the bank management, was the fact that the union would now come into the reckoning.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: I am just asking ... non-union policy, let's say that, what was the reason for that?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Right, finally then, Mr. Browne, you ... I think you did say you regretted the damage that has been done to the economy in relation to what happened in the banks. Did I hear you correctly in that regard?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: And do you accept that there have been rather serious and very bad consequences for ordinary people as a result of the bubble and the bust?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Is there an irony then, Mr. Browne, that you now run a debt-restructuring company and involved with you are-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----some of the biggest debtors in NAMA?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: What's wrong with that?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: I was just asking Mr. Browne-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----if there's an irony in the fact that he's-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. Chopra, it was said that financial regulation and supervision in Ireland leading up to the crash were deficient and you may have uttered similar sentiments. Can you say what would your view be as ... the major deficiencies leading up to the crisis?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chopra. Mr. Chopra, on page 5 of your written statement to us, I quote, “For effective crisis management it is important to recognize past mistakes, identify and allocate losses quickly and equitably, and move on." Now the losses were certainly allocated quickly. Were the losses of the crash allocated equitably within Ireland?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Okay. And in that regard, Mr. Chopra, why ... can I ask you why do you use the word "might"? Is it the case that international banks and financial speculators and bondholders operate in the capitalist financial marketplace, that the rules are that they make fabulous profits at times but if they gamble and the gamble goes down, they take the losses? But, in this case, is it true that the...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: But the Irish people, the vast majority, were not profligate lenders nor borrowers, but they were the one that was saddled with paying for those who were profligate - that minority, that elite. Is that moral?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: But would you say that the vast majority of ordinary people were profligate?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: What does that mean, Mr. Chopra?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. Chopra, with respect, the evidence that we've taken here is of a number of banks giving massive and incredibly large loans to the tune of billions to individual land speculators and others. The evidence is that the majority of the Irish people were not involved, but they paid the price. I'm asking you is that morally justifiable.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. Chopra, when you arrived here to impose the troika programme, there was a widely used photograph which showed yourself and troika colleagues passing an obviously poor man who was begging and perhaps homeless. In the context of the programme that you implemented with the Irish Governments and in the five years since, are you aware that there has been a huge increase in families,...