Results 23,981-24,000 of 35,924 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: I, I understand, you've, you've given the context of why you did not support the nationalisation.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: The point I'm trying to get to, Mr. Cowen, is, was that not the, the background to the debate about nationalisation of those two institutions, as opposed to liquidity? The reason I'm saying this is because at the meeting that night there was a, there was a viewpoint expressed that there was loan losses in those two institutions-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: -----and that you were aware of those potential loan losses.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Thank you.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Go raibh maith agat. Mr. Cowen, in your statement, you said with regard to the Financial Regulator there was: A failure to properly judge the risk that was building up in the banks and that the 2003 legislation dividing the micro and macroeconomic responsibilities between the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank did not work as well as intended, and that consumer protection aspects...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: And it's been reported before that during your tenure as Minister for Finance, which spanned a four-year period, that you met with the Financial Regulator, Mr. Neary, on two occasions during that four years. Would that be a correct view? I think it was reported that your official diary suggests that.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Did you only meet the financial ... the question is because I am not sure if that is correct or not, did you only meet the Financial Regulator, Mr. Neary, on two occasions during your four years as Finance Minister on a formal capacity?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Mr. Cowen, like, we have discussed earlier on in this morning's evidence that you met Seanie FitzPatrick for a game of golf, you had a private dinner with him within a number of weeks within 2008. Yet, in a four-year period where there is a responsibility for oversight on the Financial Regulator; you only met with the Financial Regulator on two occasions during a time of turbulence at that...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Mr. Cowen, in late 2008 to early 2009, in your view, did the guarantee decision stop working in terms of giving Irish banks the sufficient access to non-ECB liquidity? And the reason I point this out is on page 4 of the evidence book on, sorry, on page 3 of the evidence books, Vol. 5, there is a note there which clearly states that - and this is on ... this is in March 2009, just a number of...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: How long did the guarantee work for in terms of providing non-ECB liquidity? It's clear here that it has failed by-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: -----March-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: So, a number of months?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Was it, was it working, was it providing liquidity to the banks non-ECB liquidity in January of 2009 still?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Just about.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Mr. Cowen, on page 4 of the same document; there is a memo from the Department of Finance. It says: The deterioration [of] Irish credit terms associated with the national fiscal position has been compounded by the additional contingent liabilities of ... €440bn under the bank guarantee scheme and the fact that deposits and access to international credit markets have not been...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: But do you believe that the banking ... the banking, or the guarantee that was taken, which only lasted or had an effect for a number of weeks, the 12 week-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Well, to the 12 ... I was going to say about 12 weeks, and that's probably generous, if it's going up to the end of the year, had an impact on our bond yields, which had an impact on us having to apply for a troika bailout?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Yes.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: But, Mr. Cowen, the programme, the programme of assistance, as it's officially known, the €85 billion that was in that programme, €35 billion of that was provided, set aside for recapitalising of the banks. How can we credibly say that it was the problem of the Greeks, or suggest, in some fashion, that it was because of the Greeks that we had to go into a programme, given that...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. Can I ask you finally, at the start of your evidence last week, you said that you fully and completely accept responsibility for the decisions that you had taken in relation to the crisis. Today you have expressed regret on two areas. You expressed regret that there was an incorporeal Cabinet meeting instead of a full Cabinet meeting, and you've expressed regret that there was no...