Results 23,761-23,780 of 35,894 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay, so just the question again in terms of the drafting of the bank guarantee by one of the banks. Did the IBF become aware before or after that that occurred?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: And after?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: But ... okay, that's your only state of awareness?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay, I appreciate that.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Mr. Farrell, you were appointed to the Seanad for the sum total of one sitting day by the previous Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, which happened between the general election and the Seanad election. Being a former Senator for that one sitting day gives you privileges in terms of access to the Houses of the Oireachtas. How important or not was that access, that unfettered access to the Houses...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. Mr. Farrell if we can go to the ... just picking up what Deputy Phelan was talking about. If we can go to page 64, again of the core documents, this is the amendment to the Asset Covered Securities Act. And I want to go the point where you say that, despite the fact that the Government, this is a Government recommendation, or a memo to Government, a memo to Cabinet. Despite the fact...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: And it was the IBF who instigated the amendment of this legislation. Do you concur with that?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: It says here that ... on, again, the memo to Cabinet, "The Irish Bankers Federation approached the Department ... in April regarding changes to the Investment Intermediaries Act". So were you the trigger ... was your organisation the trigger for this in terms of the legislation?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: It's reported in The Irish Timesthat you wrote to the Finance Minister at the time, Mr. Brian Cowen, on 6 October 2006 about the benefits of building an Irish covered bond market, that it would allow lenders to fund the demand for mortgages. Do you recall that?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Do you ... what's your view in relation to the fact that these instruments which you lobbied for, allowed for banks such as Anglo Irish Bank to access more wholesale markets that allowed for it to lend into what many people believe was a property bubble at that time in 2007 when the legislation took effect?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Did Anglo Irish Bank not issue €5 billion of ... did Anglo Irish Bank not ... €4 billion on a covered bond backed by €6.4 billion of commercial property loans?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Did Bank of Ireland use the-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Yes, sorry.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. So-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: But, Mr. Farrell, at the core of the covered bond and the amendment, was it to allow financial institutions to access more wholesale market funding than would be previously available to them? And Bank of Ireland, Depfa Bank, others, have used this Act in the past.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Yes.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Can I ask you, Mr. Farrell, in October 2009 you spoke at the Kenmare economic conference where you said in relation to the banks and the crisis, "We built opacity and complexity into the banking model, which truth be told, defied understanding." That was the quote that you had. One of the objectives of the inquiry is to arrive at the understanding at the logic and rationale that underpinned...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay, yes, can I ask you finally-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Yes. Can I ask you finally, you told the finance committee on 2 July 2008 that the banks ... the sector was well capitalised, profitable and had strong shock absorption capacity. This was within a couple of months of many of those same banks going bust. Were you aware, as head of the IBF at that time, of issues such as that Nationwide were frozen out from the wholesale market, ECB funding...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (15 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Yes, but I am asking you a direct question and I understand that you are relying on other agencies to back up your-----