Results 2,081-2,100 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: There is an economic dictatorship by the financial markets.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Land speculators got a huge amount, surely?

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Why not?

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: Legislation.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Water Meters Installation (14 Jan 2015)

Joe Higgins: 275. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of reports that the Health and Safety Authority have received to date from members of the public of incidents arising from building contractors installing or attempting to install water meters in residential areas on behalf of Irish Water; the number of occasions the Health and Safety Authority has conducted...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Responsibility for the crash - primarily, banking or pro-cyclical policies?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: In his report, Mr. Wright focuses a great deal on pro-cyclical fiscal policy but does not, as I pointed out earlier, have a great deal to say with regard to property and construction. Is he saying that the pro-cyclical fiscal policy was more responsible for the crash than the property bubble and all that went with it? The report is also very critical of the decision to remove the lowest...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Wright has many observations about pro-cyclical financing and policies. Does he have a view on whether it is healthy for society or the economy that there is unrestrained profit taking, for example in the housing industry; that this does not seem to be a problem for the political establishment or others and that no proposals to curb that have come forward?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: On page four of his report Strengthening the Capacity of the Department of Finance, Report of the Independent Review Panel, Mr. Wright states: We met a large number of people from the political system, officials from the Department, individuals from the broader Public Sector and those with an interest in, and interaction with, the Department...We enjoyed complete access to departmental...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: On page 62 of the report, which deals with the financial services division of the Department he states: The Division is also responsible for supporting the appropriate development of international financial services in Ireland which have been a major contributor to growth and employment.Is there not a major contradiction, similar to the financial regulator, which was responsible for promoting...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: What is the balance of the financial services division, which is promoting a sector which Mr. Wright states has been a major contributor to growth and employment, whereas others would say that in the course of the bubble being blown up that same sector was responsible for the crisis that cost many jobs? Does Mr. Wright see the contradiction in that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: I confess to being surprised that less than one page of Mr. Wright's 48-page report, which really arises from the crisis that arose from the bubble that was blown up in the construction property sector, deals with construction policy vis-à-visthe Department of Finance. In that chapter, I quote, "Based on departmental advice, the Government took some limited action to moderate tax...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Did that indicate a very narrow range of thinking within the Department? In this country, there was a debate for decades on building land prices and how they increased massively at various times, thus pushing up the price of a home, etc. There has been a debate on whether there should be measures to control that, or measures to control people who buy up large numbers of houses to rent and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Yesterday, Mr. Nyberg said the house price increase was a result of speculation by those for whom this was possible and also a result of their being financed primarily by banks. In this committee we are so circumscribed by legislation we are almost afraid to admit we are human at times, but I must confess to a certain frustration, having read four or five reports, that although Mr. Wright...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Was it a good idea to have, as a key adviser to Mr. Wright's report, somebody who was central to the banking sector all the way up to the crisis?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Pat McArdle.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Wright speaks in his report of advice given by Department officials which was not taken by the Minister, or essentially the Government, in some areas. He spoke to many staff in the Department of Finance. Did anybody come to Mr. Wright and show that he or she very strongly warned against what was going on in the property sector, including the policies that the Government was implementing...

Water Services Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (17 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Tax wealth and property, yes.

Water Services Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (17 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: In the Government, yes.

Water Services Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (17 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: It is a grotesque abuse of parliamentary procedure for a Government to put a guillotine on a debate, only for Government Deputies to be deliberately piled into the Chamber to take up a significant portion, if not the bulk, of the time allocated.