Results 8,701-8,720 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: Okay. And finally ... when loans were being extended to property development construction, are you satisfied that the bank had adequate oversight of the full exposure across the different banks of the borrowers?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: Well, it might have meant the borrower was over indebted?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: Is it your view now that some lending decisions were made without the full picture being available?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Forde.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: This spring statement is a classic example of a Government over-promising and under-delivering. Built up as some kind of mini-budget, it has ended up as just another PR exercise from a Government that is quickly running out of road. At the end of all this, people who have been hearing about the spring statement for months will be left scratching their heads wondering what it was all about....

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: We accept and very much welcome that a recovery is under way. It raises fundamental questions for us as a people. What kind of recovery do we want? Do we want a fair and inclusive recovery across the economy? Do we want to bridge the divide between urban and rural? Do we want to bridge the growing divide between those who have and those who certainly have not and have lost most under the...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: Multiply that figure by five and it approximates to the more than 400,000 people who are waiting today for hospital outpatient appointments. We must evaluate the statements made thus far today through the prism of these individuals' experiences of waiting for urgent appointments or who are living with debilitating conditions. I can provide examples from my own area which will be repeated...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Minister, Deputy Howlin, simply does not want to hear the facts.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Government looks set to repeat those mistakes in the next budget. A fairer way of giving back to people through the income tax code would be by progressively dismantling the universal social charge.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The comments by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, about boom and bust cycles ring hollow because his party and the Labour Party subscribed to every ingredient of what he described as boom and bust politics.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: I note the following sentence from the statement by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, "It became fashionable for a while to decry this country and its potential." I could play the Minister a few tracks from a CD dating from five or six years ago which would include familiar voices from his own benches. We need a fair and broad based recovery. Towns and villages across this country are dying but...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The stability programme update is released quietly every year and sent off to the European Commission after a token meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service. As it happens, in the final year of this Government's term it decided to make it a set piece event in the Dáil in order to put the economy centre stage on the political agenda and to create a distraction...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: People will discover today that there is no substance to that spin. It is more about raw politics than economic management.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The employment situation has improved significantly. The number of people out of work is falling and the number of people with jobs is increasing. We warmly welcome that but there is no room for complacency when 350,000 people are still on the live register, as well as 86,000 on activation programmes. While I do not seek to demean activation programmes and their role as a stepping stone to...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The self-employed expected some indication from the Government that there would be a change in the way they are treated. Successive Governments discriminated against them in the taxation system and in their failure to provide a safety net through the Department of Social Protection. The Government had an opportunity to deal with that issue today. As the employment situation recovers, we...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Minister should have been fairer in his analysis in regard to the passing comment he made to external factors. He never had the good grace to acknowledge the favourable external factors the Government and the country are benefitting from, the historic low interest rates which he knows are extraordinary - that a country like Germany is being paid money to borrow and that Ireland can...

Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions: Motion [Private Members] (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: I commend Deputy Donnelly and his colleagues in the Technical Group on proposing this motion, which gives us another opportunity to debate the issue of mortgage arrears and the barriers to sustainable solutions. This is a balanced motion and while I would change some words here or there, I fully agree with its broad thrust. It is timely that we are debating this issue as we await the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: 67. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the implications for social protection recipients of the single euro payments area euro payments clearing and settlement system being closed on 1 May 2015; if arrangements are being made to ensure that persons receive their entitlements on the due date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16379/15]

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff Remuneration (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: 110. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the implications for serving and retired public servants, under the aegis of her Department, of the single euro payments area payments clearing and settlement system being closed on 1 May 2015; if arrangements are being made to ensure that persons receive their entitlements on the due date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17197/15]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: IBRC Operations (28 Apr 2015)

Michael McGrath: 133. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details of each transaction engaged in by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation since the nationalisation of the former Anglo Irish Bank, and prior to the appointment of a special liquidator for the corporation, that his Department officials expressed some concern about; if he will provide this information in aggregate or summary form;...