Results 21,001-21,020 of 32,864 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: No, it has not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I will get more information and come back to the Senator. I was not aware of that until I saw it in a newspaper at the weekend.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I assure the Senator that the only entities that set tax policy are my Department and me. I was not aware of that idea. I was reminded of what it is a moment ago and I find it interesting that people are already talking about budget 2019 when we are only in the second week of the implementation of budget 2018. That idea was not presented to me. Other versions of that idea were presented...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As I answer this question, I am not defending Ulster Bank. It is not my role to do that; it is a matter for the bank. According to the information I have received, it will take Ulster Bank longer than the other banks to conclude this process as a result of the systems it operates. That has been verified by the Central Bank. I want everybody, regardless of the institution with which they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes. Formerly, public interest directors had a specific set of roles that they were meant to perform and they were tied into the emergency legislation that was then in place . I intend the Government to appoint these banks directors and they will have to meet the normal requirements of company law.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, the Senator is correct. The reason we are making these appointments is that we have a certain share in these banks which allows us to put people on their boards.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In regard to the impact of the banks dealing with non-performing loans and how they would pass that on to their customers via rate reductions, so many variables would come into play that I am not in a position to answer. There are more non-performing loans in the Irish economy and our banks than is the case in other countries with which we would compare ourselves. The improvement of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I believe that their condition is positive and continues to improve as the prospects of the economy stabilise. As I said, I have met all of the CEOs and chairpersons of our existing banks. I have also met with banks that are not present in Ireland. As the prospects for the Irish economy have begun to stabilise at rates of growth that look positive, and as the kind of employment figures...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It is a matter for any shareholder to decide when to divest their own shares. While it is helpful to hear the views of others, as Minister for Finance it is for me to take a recommendation to Government. Before last summer, I made such a recommendation on the disposal of more than a quarter of AIB. That proved to be a very successful floatation for AIB and a very positive transaction for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not have that information. This may be information that the Governor of the Central Bank can provide. From my engagement on the matter since then, I have had a mixed experience of the issue. While I have always been very clear about the powers that are available to me and those that are not, I have heard some express a degree of satisfaction with the way in which the issue has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am satisfied, and I expect that the deadlines I have set with the Central Bank on this issue will be met. I wish to make two concluding points. I will not be the person to make the adjudication on that; it will be the Central Bank. It will make an assessment on the issue and report back to me. I would be very cautious about expressing a view that collective resolution of the issue...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: There are two different parts to the Senator's question. On the work involved, the work has been described to me from both the point of view of the regulator and the point of view of the banks themselves. Many hundreds of people have been involved in doing this work. In many cases the work involved going through individual bank records of people to assess whether they had been affected by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: No. It would have been done by the banks, but auditors would also have been involved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: No. This is a part of a concern I had in the second half of last year. The figures for those who were affected by this issue had to be agreed by the Central Bank. When the figures were presented to the Central Bank, it ultimately decided if the figure was too low. That involved the Central Bank looking at the audit trails, its own staff engaging with the staff of the four banks and then...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am confident we will know the full answer to that question in March when the Central Bank reports back to me with its final adjudication on the numbers of people affected. Regarding my confidence on the figure now, it is possible the figure will increase. However, I do not believe it will increase to the extent that it increased between March and December last year. While it may change,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a matter for the Central Bank. Clearly, a numerical fact that will kick in is that the quantity of activity in which these banks were engaged is a fraction of the activity of the other banks. The root causes of it and any company-specific causes are a matter for the Central Bank to draw conclusions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: We will when I have completed this process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It varies by bank depending on what is our relationship with the bank. I will come back to the Senator with the numbers of vacancies, per bank, that we are looking to fill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, but the additional layer is the responsibilities they have due to the activities of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, SSM. There are very rigorous responsibilities that they have to fulfil. I look forward to appointing people to do this work who will be independent and challenging directors.