Results 26,981-27,000 of 35,959 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I will put my last question and make an observation. A significant amount of the bank's proportion involves legal issues, 40% of which relates to family homes. Also, some 10% of the long-term resolutions relates to voluntary surrender. I see this as a major issue. In regard to the solvency service, how many of the proposals from PIPs did the bank veto and can it explain the rationale for that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: At that stage the bank would find out whether it had a surplus. When it is clarified and if there is a surplus prior to this date, is it the intention to wait until New Year's Eve 2016 or is the bank open to paying capital surplus prior to this date?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: In recent years, has any cash payment been made on the dividends for the 3.5 billion preference shares held by the State in AIB?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: It is all in the form of bonus shares.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: It falls due in May. Is there an intention in 2015 to make the €250 million cash payment required under the preference shares?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I ask for clarification on the discussion. Is it not the case there is a obligation on the bank to pay the cash sum when it is in profit?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I understand this is why in the past shares were issued in lieu of the €280 million. Given the fact these issues have been addressed, and it is very welcome that they have been, it is reasonable to assume when it falls due in May the €280 million will be paid in cash.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: With regard to the expectation the €21 billion will be paid back to the State, does this include the €1.5 billion already paid for the guarantee fees? Does it include the €280 million the bank has failed to pay the State in cash over the past three years?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I suggest from the answer that AIB is not taking the same approach as Bank of Ireland, whereby it states it has paid so much in guarantee fees that the State has been paid back. Mr. Duffy is still of the view that a capital investment of close to €21 billion is to be repaid by the State.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: The bank has been meeting investors for quite a number of years to get the bank ready for sale in the first quarter of next year if it is sanctioned. Is Mr. Duffy surprised that the Minister for Finance is telling the committee he will apply for retroactive recapitalisation for the bank? If this were the case, it would be a transfer of the shareholding the State holds to the European...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I agree with Mr. Duffy that it will be the final outcome. Does he accept, as the CEO of AIB, that to have the State transfer the shares from the ESM out of the State's hands could pose major challenges for the bank in how it is structured and operates? If it were the intention of the Government, would he expect discussions to be under way at this stage?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: We will leave it at that. The Minister has a view the European Stability Mechanism may not be the best place to manage the banks. Obviously he thinks there would be an impact on AIB. The bank's staff has decreased by 60% since 2007. Will Mr. Duffy provide the number of staff earning more than €100,000?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I have found the information, and the number of people is 560. Are discussions taking place on performance-related payments in AIB? Is there still a legislative block on AIB paying bonuses?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: With regard to strategic defaulters, which is a term Mr. Duffy has used but one which I do not accept, he has claimed that one in five of the bank's customers in arrears were strategic defaulters. Does he still believe this is the case?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: It was widely publicised at the time that Mr. Duffy suggested 20% of customers were strategic defaulters, and this definition has been clarified. Time has now elapsed, things have changed and the bank has been dealing with the issue. What percentage is it today?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: The bank has stopped calculating strategic defaulters.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I would say there are other reasons the witnesses are not giving me figures on strategic defaulters today.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: AIB (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: I welcome AIB to the meeting and acknowledge that the bank has reduced its interest rates by 24 basis points. However, this is still less than the reduction in the cost of funding, which AIB's document mentioned was 30 basis points. I hope that AIB will continue reducing its variable rates for mortgage holders. Under the restructuring plan that has been approved for AIB, the bank will pay...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Ulster Bank (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: In plain terms, the bank is making a mess of it. It screwed over - excuse my language - its customers, who still remain loyal to the bank, for months on end two years ago. It then miscalculated 7,500 people's mortgage interest tax relief. They got a benefit which the bank is now claiming back, something which it fails to understand. On top of that, it had to apologise to 1,300 customers...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Ulster Bank (13 Nov 2014)
Pearse Doherty: Is the IT system now on the island of Ireland?