Results 2,921-2,940 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Order of Business (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: The health reform Bill promises new structures for the health service. Fine Gael is planning to hand the public health service into the control of private for-profit insurance companies. Only last night, we learned that the Fine Gael supporter and financier, honorary doctor and billionaire O'Brien has now taken over a major private hospital, the Beacon. Will there be anything public about...

Order of Business (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: What plans has the Government for real public health reform?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Is it a case of saying, "Bail out the banks and to hell with the unfortunate victims of the property splurge."?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Why did the chief executive, Mr. Brown move the mortgage arrears section of Ulster Bank to Scotland?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: So it is not the case of creating a situation where there is much less empathy for the householder who is in difficulty with arrears by putting it at such a distance from the country? These people are much more removed from the daily circumstances of life in Ireland. Is that not putting people who want to talk to the bank about problems at a significant disadvantage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: There are legal proceedings in the case of 1,487 buy-to-let properties. How many buy-to-let properties have the bank taken possession of and sold off or got rid of in one way or another?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: When this situation arises for tenants, it puts them in a very vulnerable position. There is increasing stress among tenants of landlords who are dealing with Ulster Bank and other banks. How does Ulster Bank treat the tenants and does it given them a guarantee or solace in regard to the stressful position? In a situation, in which receivers are being appointed to properties, the tenants...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: In the case of an owner-occupier, when there is what the bank calls a voluntary agreement to sell, then the property is sold at the current market rate. Why then does the bank adopt the arrogant stance of not looking at a general write-down to today's value when in fact that is what happens in individual cases? Can the bank not be part of a general national solution with other banks to try...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Some of the so-called viable solutions involve split mortgages, which means that the millstone of debt will follow people to the grave. It is not a solution. What is the total number of owner-occupied negative equity mortgages on the books of Ulster Bank?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Could Mr. Brown put a monetary figure on it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: How many billions of euro?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: When Mr. Brown arrives at that figure, let him put it against by how much the parent bank was bailed out by the British taxpayer. Why does the bank adopt this position with regard to the unfortunate victims of the blackmail, profiteering and speculation that was occurring in the property market given that it was, according to the Financial Times, subject to the biggest bailout in history at...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Rental Accommodation Scheme Administration (8 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: 382. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of money spent on the rental accommodation scheme in each of the local authority areas for the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014. [16493/14]

Social Housing and Homelessness Policy: Statements (Resumed) (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: -----and then go for progressive taxation. We have shown again and again how a few extra percentage points on the corporate profits on the super-wealthy in the State would yield billions in terms of extra taxation and put that into the construction of the homes we need. Tá géarchéim uafásach ann maidir le cúrsaí tithíochta sa tír seo -...

Social Housing and Homelessness Policy: Statements (Resumed) (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: We have a chronic crisis in every virtually aspect of housing in the State. There is a catastrophic failure by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, building on the failure of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party before them, to resolve the desperate need for homes. Incredibly, 90,000 families or individuals are on local authority waiting queues nationally. It springs from the crazed...

Current Crisis in Ukraine: Motion (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: I wish to move my amendment No. 2.

Current Crisis in Ukraine: Motion (3 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: I refer to my amendment No. 2 to the Government motion. The hypocrisy of the Government and of the European Union in its Machiavellian manoeuvring in the Ukraine is breathtaking. The misfortune of the people of the Ukraine was to be trapped for decades in a Stalinist dictatorship. It was a very brutal regime dominated by Russia. When Stalinism collapsed control passed to robber barons and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: The representative from the Phoenix Project answered the question about fees. Can the other witnesses indicate whether they receive any fees or retainers from the banks with which they deal?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: From what I know about Mr. Burgess, which is only through hearing him on the media, I suspect he believes in capitalism red in tooth and claw. How can he say that a sustainable solution is an interest only situation for a worker on the average wage who was blackmailed by the extortion that was happening in housing mortgages? These people wanted a house to start a family or for whatever...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: Discussion (2 Apr 2014)

Joe Higgins: Actually it is unsustainable. We have no rent controls and landlords are a law unto themselves. Sin scéal eile that we do not have time to debate. Somebody - I think it was Mr. Maguire - described the AIB as the most aggressive bank in driving repossessions. Would he, therefore, disagree with the arrangement between the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, IMHO, and AIB which they...