Results 9,321-9,340 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: What does that mean?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Thank you very much, Chairman. Mr. Hurley, Senator O'Keeffe asked you there about worst case contingency scenarios of a systemic bank failure and you responded in detail. Can I just follow up by asking, in your assessment would the evidential base for the Government decision on the guarantee have been strengthened if such a contingency assessment had been done?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Okay. Did you say earlier on, Mr. Hurley, that there was an ECB Governing Council teleconference call on 29 September 2008?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, please do, yes.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Okay. And was Ireland specifically discussed at that meeting?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: I understand.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Okay. You indicated earlier on that there was considerable contact between yourself and the ECB in the days leading up to the end of September 2008. So, for example, during that teleconference call was it accepted that a significant intervention was going to be needed in the case of the Irish banks on an imminent basis?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: And the ECB was aware that a bank guarantee was one of the options under consideration.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: And was that one of a large number of options?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but we're not talking one option out of ten, we are talking one option of maybe three, four or five, a relatively small number of options.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: So, the impression that Mr. Trichet gave when we had the exchange with him was that the guarantee came as a big surprise to the ECB. But what you appear to be confirming is that the ECB was aware, right up to 29 September, that a bank guarantee was an option under consideration in terms of rescuing the Irish banks.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but it was specifically referred to in the Irish context over the course of those days.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: In those days. Okay. And, just to pick up on the point that Senator MacSharry raised with you about the backdrop behind all of this - and it was a time of crisis - that no bank shall fail. Was that ever conveyed to Ireland in the sense of being conveyed to the Central Bank or you, as Governor, or the Government in an Irish context by the ECB?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: So, at no time in the days leading up to 29 September - in the phone calls, teleconference calls, various communications - at no point was there any suggestion from the ECB, in an Irish context, that "You must stand behind your banks and not let them fail".
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but we're talking about Ireland. And you said that, yes, it would have emerged in the discussions. Can you be more clear on that, please?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Did the ECB make it clear that that is what was expected in the Irish case, that no bank would be allowed to fail at this critical juncture?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Can you be more specific?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Well, I suppose what I'm asking is was that message made clear in an Irish context? In the heat of the crisis, at the end of September 2008, was it made clear-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----that Ireland must stand behind its banks?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, Chairman, I find that very unsatisfactory.