Results 1,241-1,260 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with AIB (3 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I think I heard 92% loan to value. After what we heard, I think, 80% should be the absolute maximum if we do not want to go down this road all over again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with AIB (3 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I heard the figure of 92% from our visitors. We introduced the Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill in November 2012 in the Seanad. The success of Denmark is based on 80%. The figure of €90,000, €100,000 or €110,000 or whatever was given to a previous Minister to buy in a place in the K Club is irresponsible banking. I would ask that the figure of 80% not be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with AIB (3 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: We have to get back to prudence in the housing market. Given all the trouble we have experienced in this country in terms of fivefold increases between 1996 and 2006, nobody should be allowed to bid up house prices again. The 80% ratio has proven in Denmark to be a good way of stopping such activity. Somebody who ran up a debt of €300,000 would be in trouble and would appeal to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome our guests and wish them good luck in restoring commercial viability to at least one part of the Irish banking system. I will ask again for the breakdown of the 3,103 customers and the 3,164 customers with regard to defaults. There are four people from Bank of Ireland before the committee, with four in the Gallery, and it is not acceptable that we have been asking for three hours...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: Is that the policy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: The banks are bankrupt. It is really strange-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: -----that the post office was softened and it was told to pay lower interest on savings when the banks were being bailed out. That does not meet any criteria of competition.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: The industry received €64 billion so how much does Mr. Boucher think the post office received?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: It is a bizarre way for the banking industry in Ireland to conduct itself. It received €64 billion but complains that the post office is engaged in unfair competition. I have never heard the likes of that before.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I am sure the Acting Chairman will call me to account. I welcome the witnesses from Ulster Bank. The sentence on page 3 of the opening statement, "there is a cost to living in a home", needs rephrasing. Both members and the people know this. As the witnesses are aware from The Economist over the years, Ireland had the highest house price inflation of any country for which Pam Woodall...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: It is savage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome that because I do not think we should go over 80%. I believe that was the cause of the problem, which included Ulster Bank. In the history of this decade, albeit before Mr. Brown's time, Ulster Bank changed from being an industrial bank to being a major ingredient in the Irish property bubble. I have discussed this with people such as Frank O'Reilly, the previous chancellor of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: It may be that in time, those legal letters will have no effect if it is seen to be the result of irresponsible lending by banks and a judge could very well make such a decision. Members encountered cases yesterday of people who had bank debt of more than €300,000 and an income of €40,000. If Ulster Bank has any similar cases on its books, it is quite likely that a judge will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: Has mortgage protection insurance played any role in this at all or is it like the umbrella that only works when it is not raining?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: Is that not what the insurance was for - that if one could not pay the mortgage, one had mortgage protection insurance? Has it been invoked at all? Has the bank sought to use it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is much lower than that in the Republic.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: On the correlation Mr. Brown was trying to find earlier, what I see in this economy is people who have had five years of massive income reductions. On Mr. Brown's econometrics that applied before to large chunks of the economy, where people in work have been seriously deprived of income, I would expect Northern Ireland to be doing better and the relationship might still hold.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: On the discussion in the newspapers from time to time that Ulster Bank in the Republic will be offered to the Government, has Mr. Brown been at boards where this issue has ever been discussed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: We already have a good suite of loss-making banks and, at minus €387 million, I think we will decline the offer, if Mr. Brown is talking to the Chancellor.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with Ulster Bank (4 Sep 2013)

Sean Barrett: I thank Mr. Brown.