Results 25,441-25,460 of 35,925 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. Mr. Duffy, you weren't obviously at AIB; indeed ,you weren't in the country at the time of the bank guarantee. You mention in your opening statement you were born and educated here, you worked as CEO for Standard Bank International. I'm aware that that was a Standard Bank plc who we might recall in 2009 suggested that Ireland and Greece would end up going into a bailout by the end of...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: That's an important point that you make there in terms of asset bubbles. Did any alarm bells go off with you in that period of 2005 up to 2008 that the banks were often lending into a concentrated sector, that we were in the middle of a property bubble or any of those observations or others?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: I am aware of the commentary but I'm interested in your own views in relation to this here. In terms of an asset bubble, did you believe prior to 2008, prior to the guarantee, that there was an asset bubble in Ireland?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Finally, on the last issue I want to just raise with you, we had earlier on, one of your former colleagues, Mr. Sheehy, before the committee. We've talked to him about his memo that he dictated on the 2 October 2008 in relation to the night of the guarantee. In that there's a reference to a draft Government guarantee, which he says, "copy attached". He informed the committee that that memo...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Did the bank ... during your time did the bank carry out any review in relation to the issues that led up to the bank nearly becoming nationalised with the State taking a majority shareholder, 99%? Did the board or did yourself commission any study in relation to this?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Go raibh maith agat. Mr. Duffy, we were talking about asset bubbles earlier on and concentration of lending into a certain area which had an asset bubble. Do you believe that there's a property bubble under way at this point in time?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Now, if we just take Dublin alone, and you mentioned the Central Bank's measures, which dampened house prices for three of the last five months, house prices have again began to increase, as we see from the CSO, at 1.1% in the last month, with a 22.8% increase over the last 12 months. If that were to be repeated in the next year, house prices in Dublin would exceed where they were in 2005....

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, because a bubble can be caused by a number of reasons, am I correct in saying that? It can be in the past caused by credit, or in the future caused by, or in the present caused by lack of supply. And to take me onto that question you mentioned about the interaction that AIB is having with six developers. I think you've mentioned last July that you were looking to fund 5,000 houses in...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: And you talk about the confidence that the public needs to have in the institution, and your institution serves the public. I know you haven't released names of the developers and I'm not expecting you to release names of the six developers that you are, I think, talking about between €500 million and €1 billion of funding to be made available, but are you concerned that there...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Okay, in your opening-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Sorry? Yes, yes, well that was kind of looking forward for how do we prevent what's happened in the past. But in relation to your opening statement you talk about the need to deleverage to meet the newly-proposed Basel III ratios and also the demands of the Troika. How has AIB deleveraged its loan portfolio, and can you give us a sense of the type of loans that AIB deleveraged? In your...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Thank you.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: It is widely accepted that these involve a large element of financial chicanery and accounting practises that are designed to avail of very low taxation rates. I am not saying all of it, but much of it has little to do with the real economy in Ireland. The CSO has been talking about contract manufacturing which bumped up GDP growth in 2014. I am sure the Minister will not deny those facts....

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Here we are summonsed at short notice without any real information, bar the leaks we have seen in the media over the past several weeks. Obviously, the Government’s spin doctors went into hypermode trying to set the public up for what would be a great new dawn heralded by this Government after four years of austerity. We have had selective leaks from Ministers and this was to be the...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: Instead what we have is this set piece. In the past, we would have had the publication of the update for the stability programme which was then scrutinised by the finance committee, looking at the macroprojections and risks in all of the pages that we do not have time to read here today. Instead, the Government went with an election salvo, trying to suggest to the people that the bad old...

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: It stated this on the impact of budget 2015 and water charges. It has produced nice graphs to show this too. This is a Government in denial. A fair recovery could start today with a commitment to abolish Irish Water and water charges. That is what Sinn Féin would do.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: A fair recovery would mean the end of the family home tax.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: A fair recovery must mean an end to pushing more of the tax burden on to the narrow shoulders of struggling families.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: With respect, the Ministers do this every time when I stand up to speak.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Pearse Doherty: I did not open my mouth when the Ministers had 45 minutes to give their addresses. I have only started and, again, they are bickering, sniping and all the rest because the truth is sometimes hard to swallow. I understand their big day is not going down as well as it was planned in the strategy rooms of Labour and Fine Gael. The truth is that the Government has shifted the tax burden on...