Results 2,241-2,260 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Mr. Nyberg says on page 97 that he found the Department of Finance to be "seriously underweight in professional financial expertise and engagement". That is the view I would attach to its criticisms of Professor Morgan. Mr. Nyberg also refers in the report to the Department's lack of documentation. It seems the one thing the officials decided to write was a critique of Professor Kelly. On...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: It is bizarre. This is first year economics. They are the lenders of last resort but they thought they had no role to address stability issues within individual banks.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Chairman. On page 65, the report states that the commission did not engage with regulators in other jurisdictions in regard to foreign banks coming to this country. We all wish to have measures in place to prevent a recurrence of the banking crisis. Should we not have partaken in that type of engagement by opening up contacts, for instance, with countries like Canada and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Finland is a small country like Ireland which, also like us, joined the euro when many of its trading partners and neighbour countries did not. From his experience, does Mr. Nyberg see any lessons from Finland that would help this inquiry?

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2014: Second Stage (16 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: It is a very important matter, as the Minister indicated. Motoring is an activity that used to kill more than 600 people per year. We will probably get the fatality figure down to 200 this year, compared with the figure of a little over 160 in our best year. We must keep the legislation up to date with what is happening. The Minister indicated that a commencement order was not signed and...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the macro financial problems illustrated in the Central Bank report today, particularly in the property sector. The loan to values from 80% to 95% are running far in excess of what they were in the past decade. This is what the 80% loan to value proposal from the Central Bank was designed to correct. The 20% deposit which would be the remainder is...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2014: Second Stage (15 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I welcome the Minister to the House. I remember when the Minister was here in his previous capacity as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport that we had a valuable debate on what it meant when people were reported as having no driving licence - did it mean they did not appear in court for the licence or that they disguised it from the Garda? That...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report - November 2014: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: In respect of the strategic banking corporation, the Minister took an amendment to the articles of association that its activity should operate in a counter-cyclical way. Our amendment ruled out the building industry because we have done that before. Some of it is incorporated in the articles of association. I think the Minister for Finance took it to some meeting of finance Ministers in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report - November 2014: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the visitors. Their role is valuable because we have a clientelist political system and massive rent seeking up and down the Exchequer - the Niskanen bureaucracy. Some voice telling us that we have to balance the books on the odd occasion is valuable because the forces that led us over a cliff in 2008 have not gone away. As a Member of the Parliament in the three years since...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2014: Second Stage (4 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Nash. In a general sense, our budgetary process has not fallen under the reform agenda that we all agreed to implement in 2011. A large number of measures, the costs and benefits of which and the analysis of who pays, growth effects and displacement effects are not known, are laid before us. This is almost a Finance Bill debate of 50 or 60 years ago....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Business of Joint Committee
General Scheme of Sale of Loan Books to Unregulated Third Parties Bill 2014: Discussion (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Perhaps the Free Legal Advice Centres would like to suggest amendments that I could usefully propose in the Seanad. The use of words like "will", "can" and "may" comes up quite regularly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Business of Joint Committee
General Scheme of Sale of Loan Books to Unregulated Third Parties Bill 2014: Discussion (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: The documents from the Department state the proposed legislation will achieve borrowers maintaining the same regulatory protections that they had prior to the sale of their loans. That is very strong language for public servants to use. I believe we should enforce the contracts lock, stock and barrel, as Mr. Paul Joyce said. So what if a bank sold a tracker mortgage to, say, someone who...

Seanad: Homelessness: Statements (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Homelessness: Statements (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister. We all wish him every success in bringing his talents and energies to dealing with this problem. I am delighted he is tackling the slow turnover of local authority houses when they become vacant. A former Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Penrose, was examining derelict sites. I do not know whether he is any help in getting sites for...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2014: Second Stage (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of the State to the House. It is an honour to second the Bill brought forward by Senator Crown. There are several distinguished debaters on the Government benches today and I look forward to a stimulating discussion on the right to free speech. Article 40.6.1° of the Constitution begins:The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights,...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the statement by a Government spokesman that it is looking into the future development of the property tax as a tax base. The fear would be that at next review the property tax would be 70% more expensive than now, which would be a serious problem in a period when there has been no increase in real incomes. I note the report on the ambulance service and the statement by the...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: What is called the Dublin house price explosion of 42% in 18 months will create a property tax time bomb. I welcome reports that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, is considering linking the property tax to the consumer price index rather than to exploding house prices, which is not any indication of ability to pay the property tax. I am glad the Minister is addressing that. I welcome...

Seanad: Situation in Middle East and Ukraine: Statements (27 Nov 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and thank him for entering the Chamber during the recess. That was a very good debate, which reflected favourably on the House in the media, as did his presence here. It was a good day. On the issue of recognition, he says that most states have recognised Palestine. I gather that 135 states have done so, with the major exception being states of the European Union....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Insurance Schemes: Discussion (27 Nov 2014)

Sean Barrett: In his paper, Mr. Burgess knocked €67,000 off a €300,000 house. Dr. Lyons has been making that point for a very long time. The real problem we are addressing here is that housing is far too expensive in Ireland. Our fathers or grandfathers could get a house for two and a half times their income. What is wrong with the Irish construction industry? I would like the witnesses...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Insurance Schemes: Discussion (27 Nov 2014)

Sean Barrett: We went there on the horse tram.