Results 4,361-4,380 of 7,082 for speaker:John Paul Phelan

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: I have a final question. At several points in his report, Mr. Wright referred to the two dominant processes. He touched on them briefly already - the programmes for Government and the social partnership. After the publication of Mr. Wright's report, the secretary general of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at the time, Mr. David Begg, described Mr. Wright's criticism of social...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: I wish to ask Mr. Wright about page 22 of his report. I think the economist in him was coming out when the bar chart was published showing the period 1999-2008, including the June fiscal framework proposal from the Department of Finance and the final actual budget figures announced in December of those particular years. Looking at the differences between the advice offered in June and the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Mr. Robert Pye, who is an assistant secretary in the Department of Finance, was reported in The Sunday Timeshere in Ireland - after a freedom of information request on 1 May 2011 - to have made a submission to Mr. Wright's group stating that there was an environment in the Department of unquestioning obedience to politicians that permeated the Department. He also said that this was enforced...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: I was going to refer to another quote, but I think Mr. Wright has forced a rethink of my questioning. In terms of the investigations Mr. Wright had, did he uncover any informal or formal contacts between the Department of Finance and the banks' auditors at that time?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: No, I mean the actual audit houses.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Good morning Mr. Wright. I wish to follow up on the second last question put by Senator Barrett. Mr. Wright spoke of his engagement with the Canadian Minister for Finance and he referred to it as a balanced professional view that might exist between a Secretary General and a Minister at the time. Did he find in the ten year period that he investigated that such a balanced professional view...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (18 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Thank you Mr. Wright. I wish to put a number of quotations by the people who commented after the publication of Mr. Wright's report. Mr. Dave Thomas, the then General Secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, AHCPS, said in the aftermath of the publication of Mr. Wright's report, "This report clearly states that the actions of politicians, rather than civil servants,...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: I want to bring Mr. Nyberg back, finally, to that interview he gave on 29 September 2013 during which he discussed, as Deputy Doherty raised earlier, the Anglo Irish Bank tapes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: The Chairman should be mindful with other members as well.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: The Chairman did not intervene on this issue with other members. I just want to point that out.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: On a direct quote from Mr. Nyberg on that day, he said in the interview that those tapes gave "a very lively and unpleasant feeling for the kind of hubristic company culture that existed in Anglo at the time". I would like him to expand on what he meant by the "hubristic company culture". To the ordinary person in the street, I think "hubristic company culture" might be termed as being...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: With due respect, Mr. Nyberg can-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Did Mr. Nyberg speak to the auditors when he conducted his investigation?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Did Mr. Nyberg speak to junior auditors who were, for the most part, the people who went into these institutions to conduct the audits?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: Not just senior people.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: In terms of Mr. Nyberg's interviews with some of the auditors who carried out the audits in the banks, were examples given of issues that were flagged by those people? The interviews were conducted on the basis of confidentiality. Were there issues that may have been flagged by them that did not subsequently emerge in the final audit reports of the institutions?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: I wish to turn to Mr. Nyberg's comments today and in the report on the role of external auditors. Pages 51 to 58, inclusive, in the report reference their role. I will quote him directly today and it is not contained in the document. He said they did not know "more or less" than other groups and further on he said they were "no better or worse" than other professionals and ideally all...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: In terms of Ireland, were there any specific failings of auditors and of external auditors that were different here from in other jurisdictions?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (17 Dec 2014)

John Paul Phelan: On page 56 of the report, paragraph 3.6.2, Mr. Nyberg stated: The Commission would have expected a bank auditor, exercising necessary professional scepticism, to have concerns where there were growing property and funding exposures, combined with material governance failings. Does Mr. Nyberg feel that the auditors of the Irish banks that he looked at exercised that lovely term "necessary...