Results 2,421-2,440 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: If we had a majority, we probably would have opposed the Bill. Everybody knows that. Traditionally, everything was opposed by Irish Governments regardless of the merits of what came from the Opposition. On the principle of the Bill, we share the aspiration to reduce variable mortgage rates. As they pinch hardest for historic mortgages because the new offerings have reduced interest rates,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: It was not that there should be some term of relief for mortgage holders - we all share that aspiration - it was because the Central Bank, which is independent, would be empowered by the Legislature to direct mortgage rate levels. That created concern in the market. Anyone connected to the lenders would have been made aware of that concern. I am saying there was a cause-and-effect...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: That is an assertion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: I have produced the piece of paper; Deputy Paul Murphy is only making assertions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: If one thinks about the matter, it stands to reason that shareholders would look at it and believe their shares were less valuable because if the Bill were successful, the interest rates relating to mortgages would be reduced. As a consequence of interest rates going down, there would be less profit from mortgage books. If there is less profit from mortgage books, it impacts on share...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am not the proposer of the Bill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: I understand that the proposer of the Bill is to answer the questions in this process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am holding my position. However, time has moved on so I will not repeat the facts.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: We should deal with the fact that, from a shareholder's perspective, if measures are taken in the Oireachtas, the intent of which quite clearly is to reduce interest rates, which have a consequence of reducing the profitability of a loan book, it stands to reason that the share price will go down. Is that not the way the market works? Why is the Deputy arguing about it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: Why is it nonsense?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: Why do people buy shares?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: To make a profit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: If a shareholder wakes up one morning and sees something happening which will reduce the profitability his or her shares, he or she knows the price will go down and will sell as quick as lightning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: Effectively, what Deputy Michael McGrath is saying is that there were other factors at play in the market. There are always other factors at play in the market. My view is that the Deputy's Bill was the trigger.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: I want to comment on Deputy Paul Murphy's intervention to the effect that mortgage holders are a soft target in that the banks are recovering their losses elsewhere by excessive charges on mortgage holders. That is effectively the argument the Deputy makes. The letter to which Deputy Paul Murphy and a number of other Deputies, including Deputy Michael McGrath, referred is the Central Bank...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: We are on the first day of a new departure in the Irish parliamentary system. Since 1922, there has never been a minority Government to the degree we have now. If one looks at what happens in the US Congress, one will see that Bills carry the names of the proposers quite frequently. That gives one an insight into the process. Very often it is across the aisle. A Democrat and a Republican...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: That is the kind of thing we need to tease out here. I have said there are concerns about the Bill and we need to tease them out. I do not want to make any pre-emptive statement here, however, which might be taken as an indication that I would not co-operate. I will co-operate if we can. If this is enacted, it will not give any executive function to the Department of Finance. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: When the banks got into trouble it was part of the bailout programme that the Government entered into contractual arrangements with all the banks. They were framework contracts, and interference in commercial decisions by the shareholder is excluded from the powers of the Minister. The Deputy will see the reason for that when he thinks about it. We have to allow the banks make commercial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: My position is that in the opening address this morning I am pointing out the kind of issues that would arise if I was sponsoring this legislation myself. I am not stating categorically that the difficulties I am pointing out cannot be overcome but what I am saying is that they have to be addressed by the committee. I am not saying either that the difficulties are insurmountable. It might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016: Discussion (20 Oct 2016)

Michael Noonan: It is a new experience for me also.