Results 13,201-13,220 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Latest Eurozone Developments and Future Implications for Euro Currency: Discussion (15 Jul 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: They have taken people back.

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

Pat Rabbitte: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, you have directed that I attend before the inquiry to give evidence on three specified themes in the context of my role as leader of the Labour Party from 2002 to 2007. I have made a written submission, as directed. I'm bound to say, Chairman, at the outset that it is my view that whoever and whatever was responsible for the banking...

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

Pat Rabbitte: I think it characterises the nature of adversarial politics. That's the normal democratic impulse. The implication, I think, behind your question, Deputy, is that before 7 o'clock on the fateful morning that the Labour Party somehow had known that this was going to happen.

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

Pat Rabbitte: We didn't know. We didn't know. You know, questioning my colleague about whether we had a refined alternative is ridiculous. The thing was sprung on us.

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

Pat Rabbitte: The thing was sprung on us, shock and awe. It was the most extraordinary story in my lifetime that I woke up to that morning. So, no, we didn't have a refined alternative. We had to, there and then, react to the proposals being brought forward and all I can say to you is that I think - and it's very easy be wise in hindsight - I think that if I had been walking through the streets of...

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

Pat Rabbitte: Yes, that's right. Right up to ... and you will ... I think we're agreed, the rot had started by 2003 and, you know, price of houses had risen by three times that time. So from thereon in, we pursued the property issue consistently and by all methods open to us.

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

Pat Rabbitte: I knew broadly the type of client that Anglo Irish had. I didn't know it was as clustered as the figures subsequently bore out but I knew the type of client it had, I knew of the complaints of other banks that some of their high net worth individuals and corporates were complaining that they weren't getting a similar yield to what Anglo Irish was providing. But I didn't know it was...

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, with respect, Deputy ... with respect, Senator, I don't think that that was a narrowing of the tax base issue. I mean, the narrowing of the tax base issue in Irish politics has been a question of to whom the tax law applies and the fact that it was very narrowly focused on PAYE workers and income that could be cut-----

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

Pat Rabbitte: It was a reduction of the tax rate, not a narrowing of the tax base.

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

Pat Rabbitte: Yes.

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, I mean, I don't think that you can draw the conclusion from a single modest proposal that was designed to address people on modest incomes getting some kind of a break prompted by the fact that very high earners had all of the reliefs that we have just been speaking about since we started. They could minimise their tax liability or mitigate it. The small person trapped in PAYE and so...

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

Pat Rabbitte: No, I think it was a question of equity, as has been said, I mean ... high earners had enjoyed considerable benefits over the period of the boom, and yet people on very modest incomes were subject to tax without a similar level of alleviation. I mean, it is true that the environment for that election was immensely competitive. You'll recall the address that the then Taoiseach gave to his...

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, I certainly had some engagement with them, I don't know did I actively seek it, as often as not they actively sought us. Yes, we had engagement with them and, you know, we would take into account whatever they said, but what weight we would give to it was a matter of judgment of the people deciding the policy platform.

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, I mean you can only bring your political compass to bear on that in terms of in terms of the circumstances at the time. I mean , you know, it wasn't any secret, every party was in possession of information about the property issue at that time and you know it got to such a stage ... I recall making a speech to the Association of European Journalists - I made a number of them at the...

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

Pat Rabbitte: I don't accept that, Chairman, if you mean that I ought to have gone to the last conference before a general election and announced things that would be manifestly unpopular with the electorate. I wasn't minded to do that. But in this particular one, as the speech shows I said very clearly, that if resources permitted, this is what we propose to do. And we proposed to do it because we felt...

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

Pat Rabbitte: No, I'm only speaking for myself.

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, the statement doesn't relate to what happened during the course of 2008. I'm talking about the property bubble, as it emerged and when it emerged and as it "growed and growed", like Topsy, and I'm saying that, no, frankly, I didn't, I regret, make the connection between the property bubble and the risk to the banking system. I suppose partly because we were getting all these bouquets...

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

Pat Rabbitte: May I-----

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

Pat Rabbitte: -----just say, Chairman, I think the question was addressed to me as well. May I just say that I get the impression that the inquiry, as a result of hearing testimony to the fact that there were some big players in the financial sector advocating a guarantee and there were some senior officials considering the options and so on, I think it's important to say that the political system didn't...

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

Pat Rabbitte: Well, I certainly got the Connacht final right anyway, Deputy.