Results 19,121-19,140 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: What is that?
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: No Government decision has been made in respect of the first matter raised by the Deputy. As the Deputy is aware, a report has been prepared in the Department of Justice and Law Reform on these matters to get a more modern framework for the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. There is a question as to whether resort tourism should be catered for in that context as well and that is an issue for a...
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: No, I have not said a Bill is not necessary. I am simply saying a decision must be made by Government for legislation to be brought forward with regard to these matters. What has been looked at, as the Deputy is aware, is the need to review the whole legislative framework currently governed by 1956 legislation which, I presume, does not take account of the many technological and other...
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: I understand we could complete the Child Care (Amendment) Bill without much difficulty based on the co-operative support of the Deputy and other Deputies. The other issue was raised earlier this morning in the context of changes to sub-contracting legislation. This is being dealt with in the Seanad at the moment and will come here. Unfortunately, it does not have retrospective effect as...
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: I stated earlier or yesterday that we hoped to have it this session as well, before the beginning of the next session.
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: There is no date for the bail amendment Bill. I expect the legal costs Bill to be published next year.
- Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)
Brian Cowen: These matters will be debated in a couple of moments.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: I am not too sure if it was just in relation to the introductory statement Deputy Kenny made that I regarded whatever he said with contempt, but there was basically the assertion that in some way there is an untoward issue that arises as a result of any contact that took place. That is a narrative which has been conducted by the Opposition on an ongoing basis. When one gets to the nub of...
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: That is the narrative that the Labour Party and Fine Gael - the latter from time to time, though not as often - have put about non-stop. Of course, it resonates for them and they are obviously getting some votes out of it. I want to make it as crystal clear as I possibly can that every decision we made at a time of great crisis in this country was objectively based. Everything we did was...
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: It did and it is on the record. It said there should be no guarantee when I and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, came into the House on 29 September.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: If there had been no guarantee, that bank and all the banks would have failed. The party then argued: "It was not a systemic bank, it was your friend's bank; that is why you saved it."
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: It is not, because it is a systemic bank. Professor Honohan says so and that it is beyond question-----
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: If the Deputies want me to quote him, I can do so. I have the quotation.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: It is beyond question that is the case. Let us not distort the facts. One of the points I would like to make in the House, which I will finalise in terms of the first of the questions Deputy Kenny asked me, is that people can have differences of opinion about many matters. In any crisis, one can consider a number of options and decide what is the best approach. We took the most assertive...
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: We were the first country to have to take the guarantee option. Subsequently, Denmark came forward with a guarantee option and used senior debt. The template of all the guarantee options is that of Sweden, which introduced a blanket guarantee in the 1990s when it had to try to save its banking system. Of course, circumstances are different in every country-----
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: Even if one considers the initial Northern Rock guarantee, one will note it had to be widened by the British Government a short time after its introduction because it did not, I presume, provide sufficient credibility for the markets to ensure the run on the bank would stop. Hindsight is great and people do not want to talk about the subordinated debt, which was 3.3% of the total. The Labour...
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: First of all, regarding the question on whether executives at the meeting in April outlined some of their positions, I am not sure whether it happened.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: I do not have a written contemporaneous note of what went on. I do not remember every aspect. I am not trying to be opaque.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: I am trying to be honest about what I recall and do not recall. Let me be straight with the Deputy. I want to be straight with the people, which is more important.
- Leaders' Questions (12 Jan 2011)
Brian Cowen: Whatever was said did not suggest the bank was about to go under. I guarantee the House that was not the situation. The issues were the nose dive in the commercial property market, which took place in the second half of 2008, and all the corporate governance issues that arose afterwards. This is not the point anyway. The central suggestion here is that, by having this contact, I did things...