Results 9,901-9,920 of 36,253 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (10 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: In Mr. Carswell's view how important or unimportant were the relationships to the Irish banking crisis?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (10 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Again, in his opening statement, Mr. Carswell said, "Moral responsibility for the excesses of this period can be cast widely but legal responsibility for what happened, and what was permitted to happen, far less so." It is a different view than that put forward by Dr. Nyberg who was of the opinion in his report that, "The nature of systemic banking crises rarely allows blame and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (10 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: I have two final questions. Was Mr. Carswell's book ever legally challenged? As a result of his research in his book, is Mr. Carswell aware of whether any borrower of Anglo Irish Bank lobbied the Government in the run-up to the bank guarantee?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (10 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Anglo Republic.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Cuirim fáilte roimh an tUasal Farrell chuig an fiosrúchán seo. Professor Farrell has referred in his oral evidence to a weak Parliament and stated he seeks to address the issue of if this contributed to the banking crisis. Did it contribute to it?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Professor Farrell went on to say this was a sin of omission. When speaking about parliamentary oversight and sins of omission, he is speaking not about the Government but the parliamentary system as a whole. Perhaps he might elaborate on who, in his view, was guilty of sins of omission in this regard.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: In terms of the weakness of Parliament, who or what, in Professor Farrell's view, controls Parliament and is the structure of the weak Parliament a sin of omission or a sin of commission?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Professor Farrell mentioned the resourcing of committees. What is his view of the competence of parliamentary and committee resources in terms of the effectiveness and independence of Parliament?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Professor Farrell mentioned in his opening statement that, on paper, at least, the committees already had pretty substantial powers to monitor and scrutinise the Government. Will he explain this further for the committee? In that regard, does he mean that limits on powers are not important in restricting the work of committees or does he believe it would be useful for committees to have...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: In regard to Mr. Farrell's observations on the structure and way committees operate, and the culture which members of the committee have, is this committee an outlier in terms of continental Europe? Are there common features that we can see in other parliamentary democracies?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Does Professor Farrell believe that politicians have the ability to reform parliament to the degree he believes it needs to be reformed? It would mean ceding power from Government to the Oireachtas. Does he believe that is possible? Does he believe it is not possible?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: The professor mentioned that since 2011 there have been attempts at Dáil reform and went on to say they were little more than cosmetic. What did he mean? Why have the changes been little more than cosmetic?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: The professor has mentioned, as he did in his opening statement, that one useful innovation has been the introduction of pre-legislative scrutiny. All of us on this committee are familiar with the way scrutiny works. Under the terms of reference of this committee of inquiry, we can look at IBRC and its liquidation. The professor may know that the legislation to liquidate the IBRC passed...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: I am not sure if the professor followed yesterday's evidence from Mr. Carswell but he told the committee the following: Individuals who worked in the political arena afterwards took up highly paid roles representing and lobbying on behalf of the construction and financial industry. Easy and ready access to politicians brought easy and ready access to policy and decision-making that drove...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: I wish to raise the issue of the Irish budgetary process. Professor Farrell mentioned in his statement that there is a "tightly controlled, highly secretive budgetary process." Can he explain what he meant by that comment? Who benefits and does anybody benefit from such a secretive process?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: The professor said that to have an effective parliamentary democracy there are three key factors and one of them is the culture of open and transparent government, a culture that is lacking in this State. In this module we are here to deal with the relationship between property, finance, politicians, developers and so on. Would a culture of open and transparent government hinder or help...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Professor Farrell said earlier, I think in response to Senator O'Keeffe, that the Oireachtas is not an actor that matters. In terms of framing economic policy, apart from Government, which he has mentioned, I ask Professor Farrell to outline the actors that matter, if any?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Framing economic policy.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Professor Farrell is very hard on himself. That is a fair enough answer to it. He spoke at length about removing the Whips from committees. Let me quote to him a statement in recent weeks by a Deputy who called a vote at a committee. He stated:What happened subsequently was that members of the Select Committee who were absent had to be substituted so seven substitutions were made. Seven...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (11 Mar 2015)

Pearse Doherty: The current configuration in the Dáil has a large number of Independents. We have a Technical Group which has been a feature of, I think, the four most recent Dáileanna. Within that period for a number of years there was no ability to establish a Technical Group because the numbers were below seven. Indeed it was my election to the Dáil in a by-election that allowed a...