Results 27,021-27,040 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: Question 170: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will provide details of the €250 million job protection programme; when she expects this scheme to commence; the financial mechanisms being used to fund this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30171/09]

Written Answers — Tax Code: Tax Code (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: Question 272: To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the increase in excise duty for an off-licence which increased by 100% in 2009 makes no distinction between off-licences that have a tiny volume of sales and those that sell bigger quantities; if he will review the licence fee in order that it does not create a burden on outlets that run...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: Question 620: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to ratify the UN protocol to prevent human trafficking; if there is a need to update Irish law in this respect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30708/09]

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: I move amendment No. 2: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: "Dáil Éireann declines to give the National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009 a Second Reading because: 1. The Government has published neither the Bacon report that underpins the NAMA proposal nor any proper analysis of this enormous initiative in terms of: a. The enormous risks for taxpayers of using a...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: The Minister is assuming, for this exercise, that not only have we reached the bottom but we are about to bounce back. Yet he has not offered supporting evidence for this. It is extremely worrying that we are being asked to make this decision without access to proper evidence. This goes to the core of the issue. One thing Irish people have learned over the last seven years is not to accept...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: They are the same people who were telling us there would be a soft landing. They turned around to the critics and said it was an act of national sabotage to criticise the wonderful policies the Government was pursuing. These people are now hatching up the idea that there is only one game in town. The new creed is the notion of long-term economic value, which has replaced the concept of...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: We cannot risk public money on the back of an assurance by the Minister or anyone else. The Irish taxpayer is being asked to pay more than the value of these loans because the Minister or one of his advisers believes things will be rosy. There is no buyer who goes out and pays over the ante in the marketplace on the basis that things will get much better. There is no sound reason the Irish...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: That view is wrong. The history of this House is strewn with cases in which Irish people have paid dearly because important questions were not asked or, if asked, were not answered. I am determined that we will not leave questions unasked and unanswered in this debate.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: I have also heard the argument of political opportunism - that the Opposition should let this go to avoid facing difficult decisions. That, again, is a dangerous route. The patriotic thing to do now is to ask the hard questions, put this under real scrutiny and expose the fact that we are making a mistake. We are embarking on a ship that is not seaworthy and heading in a direction that...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: The Government is unwilling to discuss the notion that there are elements of the banks that are good and need protection and elements that are bad and do not need to be protected. Fine Gael's approach to this has led us to separate the flow of credit solution from the bank resolution solution. We are doing that for sound reasons: we can use public money more effectively if we make that...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: We will stand at the ready to protect and save what is systemically important in the banking system so that if the banks cannot meet stress tests and must come to the State for aid, it will clearly be on the basis of saving what is important - the parts that will keep our economy, our businesses and our families going - but leaving certain investors to deal with the toxic loans and the bad...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: The Taoiseach is shifting the burden from where it was created to the taxpayer. That is not the correct approach we should adopt. NAMA fails the critical tests of being effective, fair and of involving the least cost. It does not square up to those criteria. Its origins do not start with the needs of enterprises and families. It does not distinguish the important part of banking from the...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: -----which will be revealed at some stage during the debate. We are embarking on paying out €54,000 million of taxpayers' money, yet we will now have to wait until Committee Stage to see if it will result in credit flowing to business. Does that not put a huge question mark over the thinking that has gone into this legislation?

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: Once one decides to pay hope value instead of market value, one destroys the concept of fairness. It implies that taxpayers are being forced to pay more for what they are getting than what they ought to pay. That approach destroys the concept of fairness. There is plenty of international evidence to show that the state is not good at running asset recovery. When political objectives are...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: I have heard the Minister say time and again that the collapse of Lehman Brothers is the reason we have to protect everyone. He has learned the wrong lesson. The problem with Lehman Brothers was that its collapse spread panic because there was no framework for managing what it was doing. It was not the case that it was letting investors and bondholders suffer losses; that was not what was...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: There were not raised on behalf of the Irish taxpayer.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: The taxpayer does not have an obligation to meet them. The interests of foreign investors considering investing in Irish Government paper are the same as those of the Irish taxpayer. They want to see a government that is frugal with its money and that will not be a soft touch for bankers who have made bad investments.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: They want a government that will be careful and will approach banking, as it does ever other issue, in a tough-minded way. The mistake the Minister is making is that he believes that bondholders cannot discriminate between investments made in banks and investments made in a sovereign state that is determined to manage its affairs effectively. That mistake underlies the Ministers' approach....

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: There was no attempt to have a serious engagement on these matters. That is one of the flaws in the approach.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (16 Sep 2009)

Richard Bruton: It is extraordinary that there has been a deafening silence. Those who are defending this approach are largely conscripts and people who have vested interests in the system. We need an objective debate on this. Let us not forget that these are decisions where the interests of taxpayers and the interests of investors in banks are pitted against one another. We have to make decisions that...