Results 2,021-2,040 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Energy Policy (3 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: 592. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will report on the review of energy options for the State with the inclusion of nuclear power. [4383/15]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Renewable Energy Generation (3 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: 593. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the Pathways to Power report January 2015 compiled by the WWF and international marine consultants DNV GL on a fully renewable energy system in Scotland by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4384/15]

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: On page 2 of Professor Kane's presentation he says, "the problem is that, in good times and in bad, regulatory and banking cultures continue to encourage their country's largest banks to take on too high a risk of ruin, i.e., too much tail risk." On page 1 of his presentation he says, "then, in times of deep trouble, supervisors extend the safety net to promote the needs of distressed...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Professor Kane states on page 3 that "...the distortions that unbridled profit maximisation might cause becomes an additional justification for regulating financial firms". Could he elaborate on the role that the distortion profiteering by financial institutions had in the global financial crisis?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Is it not inevitable, in a situation where private profit maximisation is the ultimate goal, that institutions will take risks for that end?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: On page 4, Professor Kane states, "The goal of my testimony is to suggest how - by defining and sanctioning theft by safety net as a felony - governments can better align incentives of private risk managers, accountants, credit-rating firms, and government supervisors with those of ordinary citizens." Is it really possible to align the interests of, for example, hedge funds - which some...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Professor Kane states on page 9, "With each successive recession, more benefit is extracted by too-big-to-fail institutions". I make the remark that this has been observable in Ireland also. Then Professor Kane states, "I fear that far greater and more dangerous benefit flows will emerge in the next crisis". Some people might feel chilled by that prognosis. Is Professor Kane saying that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: I do, if the Chair would bear that in mind. Professor Kane referred in response to Deputy Murphy to the interconnectedness between the regulators going back into the banks, the interchangeability, campaign contributions to politicians etc. All that is in the mode of private for-profit banking in financial markets. What would Professor Kane say to public ownership banking with democratic...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: I referred to the next crisis.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (28 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Is Professor Kane saying it is inevitable that we are going to have more dangerous benefit flows in the next crisis?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Implementation (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach should learn from the history of implementing previous programmes for government, particularly concerning his target of raising €2 billion through the sale of State assets. Does he agree that traditionally the privatisation of State assets has been extremely destructive for our economy and for the public? The Telecom Éireann privatisation debacle, for example, was...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Implementation (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: 4. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the implementation of the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43818/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: It is not every day that a Taoiseach would come into this House and vindicate the view of those who think that everybody in Government is a shower of - it is a word that begins with a P and finishes with an S - artists, even though the Taoiseach used the word "embellishments".

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: This is an important question. Does the Taoiseach not agree that Cabinet confidentiality should come very much behind the need and the right of citizens to know what happened in Cabinet at crucial times, for example around the time of the bank guarantee?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach has enlightened us on an entirely new departure in Irish politics. He has now cast establishment party leaders - Taoiseach and Ministers - as gifted artists who shower embellishments on their citizenry instead of a solid plan as to what they will do to try to improve the circumstances of the people and the country. Can the Taoiseach share with us what other embellishments are...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Why did the Taoiseach not set it up in the first year?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Confidentiality (27 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: It is on page 19.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: What categories of people did Mr. Regling speak to in the preparation of his report?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Could I put it to Mr. Regling that it was widespread in a sense, but it really related to an elite and largely to the establishment? Would he agree that perhaps when he says property acquisition as a topic was almost a national obsession in Ireland, and that it was hard to overstate the impact of this cultural attitude, this was perhaps the case among those people to whom he spoke, but the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (21 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: In Mr. Regling's report under "areas for investigation" and "policy lessons", can I ask in particular regarding speculation in building land and property, are there lessons in that regard that should find their way into policy changes? By way of background, I refer to the fact that in Europe, the component price of a home that is caused by the land or site value is about 15%, but in Ireland...