Results 4,141-4,160 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: Let us ask the fox to bring back the hens it stole.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (6 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the fact that Ireland currently does not have legislation on controlled foreign companies which would allow the State to declare a tax haven subsidiary of a parent company to be resident for tax purposes in this country despite most advanced industrial countries having legislated for this; his views on the fact that this lack of legislation allows...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: From the point of view of the customer, these arrangements are quite depressing. What prospects are there for those who, having lived with the stress from the difficulty of sustaining a mortgage, now face a situation in which they are shackled to the bank and just paying interest? Term extensions also lead to extra burdens of interest. We put this question yesterday to the other bankers...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: The 86% are probably relieved but some of those mortgages have 35- or 40-year terms as a result of the outrageous blackmail in the property market during the bubble. Has Bank of Ireland considered the idea of revaluation so that homes are valued according to their real value and not the outrageous speculative and immoral values that were gouged from the younger generation who had to purchase...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: In the last four years, prices have only gone one way. It would not take a financial genius to put in place a structure whereby, if there was a sudden massive spike, it could be taken into account. Is there any merit in the arguments that some of us on the left have made about a general write-down rather than this individual tortuous process for owner-occupiers who face negative equity and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: Does the bank carry no responsibility for the massive transfer of 40 years of a person's life to the speculators the bank facilitated during the bubble?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: So the bank bears no responsibility for the outrageous profiteering that went on at the expense of a younger generation of working people during the ten years of the bubble?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: Will Mr. Boucher confirm that, last year, his annual salary as chief executive was about €620,000?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: Will he confirm that pensions and other benefits would have made that substantially higher, possibly towards €800,000?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: In the past 24 hours, it is the first time in my life I have had the pleasure of being in the company of three chief executives - IBRC, AIB and Bank of Ireland - that between them walk away with €2 million or €2.5 million per annum in salary. Considering the damage wrought on our society by banking institutions through their connivance in the speculative culture that existed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: The shareholders are big business and, scandalously, the Irish Government. I am talking about the moral justification. Does Mr. Boucher understand the anger, outrage and hurt out there among ordinary people, including the bank's customers, that we have this massive inequality in this society of austerity and crisis as a result of the crash brought about by the financial institutions and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: I suppose we will get no further on that one. Mr. Boucher and the bank expressed gratitude to the taxpayers for the input of capital and taxpayer's funds. If he is truly grateful, why has the bank introduced really mean-spirited banking charges that will hit precisely the poorest and most vulnerable? For example, under the bank's new regime, customers must keep €3,000 permanently in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: How was the bank able to keep some of these arrangements in place until recently? What is the change that has forced the bank to bring in these meaner attacks on its customers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Boucher mentioned that about 16,000 owner-occupier mortgages have had what he describes as restructuring. What is the nature of the restructuring? Are there interest-only arrangements in many cases and, if so, how many?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: What about the Personal Insolvency Bill?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: Is the salary cap approximately €500,000?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: Consequently, the top three salaries must be close to €500,000.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: Members received similar information in this morning's session. However, such salaries are gigantic when one considers the €20 billion in taxpayers' funds and the crucifying austerity that is being implemented as a result of bailing out these banks and the speculators who lent to them, which is affecting the poorest and the lowest-income people in our society. How is it morally...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: With regard to lending to small and medium enterprises, I wish to approach this from a different angle. I gather, from reading the international financial press in recent months - that is, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and so on - that essentially, as far as investment is concerned, capitalism in the eurozone is in a state of paralysis. The figures that were given indicated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of AIB: Discussion (31 Oct 2012)

Joe Higgins: They must be going elsewhere, then, to deposit the uninvested cash. As for foreign direct investment, it is fine and obviously is an important part of the economy, but it is the domestic economy here that is getting hammered. This is the reason lending to small and medium-sized enterprises is so important. To move on quickly, a return to profitability by 2014 has been raised with Mr....