Results 23,101-23,120 of 26,960 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Let me put it another way because I have two minutes left. Is not everybody who took out a mortgage, more or less from 2000 to 2008 - or who lost their job as a result of the crash, and who consequently cannot pay their mortgage - an innocent victim of a crisis caused by other people in the banking system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To my mind, surely there is no moral hazard in giving them relief. It is in the public interest both in terms of the economy and for them as members of the public, that they get relief which should require debt write-down. The moral hazard for most of the public is that the banks who caused the crisis are the ones who get bailed out across the board. All the banks get bailed out but the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is because most people are not scammers like, arguably, the bankers and speculators were.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but would it not-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They would.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is very simple. If we identify the bubble period - and it is not hard to identify it, between about 2002 and 2008 - that group of people, whether or not they are in mortgage distress now, or whether they are in negative equity - which is also a form of distress, although not as bad as being in arrears - are unique. They are in trouble through no fault of their own. We could quantify how...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It seems to me that there is no way out of this mess if we carry on because you guys have a veto. Mr. MacSharry has said he will continue to act primarily in the interests of the company. On a number of occasions, he has stated that he finds himself bound by company law. There is clearly a conflict between his loyalty or requirement to serve the best interests of the company as against the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: When Mr. MacSharry says that 20% of the bank's residential mortgages are in trouble, would it not be fair to say that a lot of those people, if not most, have lost their jobs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In most cases, they are in arrears because they have lost their jobs.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is Mr. MacSharry telling us that if a person has lost their job they are also going to lose their house?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Nothing Mr. MacSharry has told us gives us any reason to believe other than the fact that if a person has lost their job they will lose their house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will ask some quick-fire questions on facts before I get into the main question. It was said that 20% of the 174,000 mortgages are in arrears.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How many residential mortgages are there?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How many of the 174,000 mortgages are residential? Is it 20% of the 174,000 mortgages that are in arrears?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How many of those are residential?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Are we saying that 20% of 85,000 are in arrears? A fifth of 85,000 is approximately 17,000, which implies that number is in arrears.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How much of that is residential?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is probably about half.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Role and Contribution of Public Interest Directors in Financial Institutions: Discussion with Permanent TSB (19 Dec 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am trying to find out what it costs. Someone said they were not interested in a blanket write-down, but we are. People rightly say the State should demand a write-down of the unsustainable debts that are on the back of the State.