Results 4,881-4,900 of 35,563 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: In Mr. Sreenan’s experience, is it better to have one’s mortgage with a bank or a nonbank entity? Let me put it like this, if he was taking out a mortgage today, where would Mr. Sreenan rather have his mortgage? Would it be with a bank, a vulture fund or, as he calls it, a nonbank entity, or does he believe that there is no difference and that he would be protected in either...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that and I made representations to banks and to vulture funds also. In some cases, one gets positive solutions from both of them. I also have a view that in the main, it is hard to get solutions or even engagement, in some cases, with all of the rest. This is what I am trying to ascertain from Mr. Sreenan because the vulture funds are not coming before us and are refusing to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: It is interesting that Dr. Lajoie mentions this. AIB was probably a good example in terms of its attempts to withdraw cash services. Those main street banks are susceptible to public pressure. It is why they spend money on advertising and on sponsorship. It is because they want us to feel good about their business and because they want people to open their children's accounts with them....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: It is interesting. I commend the work MABS staff do right across the State. We see the issue when people contact us at my office, and the offices of some of my colleagues. There is a marked increase in the past number of months of people phoning in about mortgages. We were not hearing it for quite a while. There was a huge issue and a huge demand about it a couple of years ago. Some of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I refer to the cases MABS is dealing with in terms of the nonbank vultures and those experiences and difficulties there, including some entity writing out to a client and excluding MABS from that process. Has MABS got a channel to Central Bank of Ireland in relation to that? The Central Bank is supervising these entities now and keeping a closer eye on them. It sent out the "Dear CEO"...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I too have met with Mr. Kincaid. One of the positive things we hear from the Central Bank is that not only are the likes of MABS and Deputies like myself and others bringing some of these cases to the bank, the Central Bank is also informing us that they are following up individually in these cases. If anybody who is listening is in that situation where procedures are not being followed, I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate the work of MABS. We encourage people in energy difficulty to engage. We acknowledge that some of the big energy providers have ring-fenced a fund, which is under the administration of MABS, to support some of their customers who are financially vulnerable. In fairness to Bord Gáis, it would not know if it was me or Deputy Durkan who was struggling with our gas bill. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: There has been much political discussion by different Governments that it was supposed to be forced and all the rest or that there would at least be a suite of options that every single entity would have to offer. That does not exist. It is great to say that the code of conduct on mortgage arrears applies to everybody. If you look at the fine print, however, it is clear that it only...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: We put forward a proposal in the those terms. I told the Minister that we could introduce baselines whereby it would not kick in until a certain point. I refer, for example, to trackers and so on. The Central Bank is not going to intervene with regard to these interest rates, which will continue to go rise over the coming period. This relates to the €6,000 or €7,000 a person...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is my final question. I thank the witnesses for all of the work they do. Unfortunately, I am sure they will be before the committee again. At the same time, there is hopefully some brightness on the horizon. If we look at the ECB projections, by 2025 inflation should be under control and these interest rates may be coming down, which is another argument to intervene now to help with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds: Discussion (8 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Well said. Thank you.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Code (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: To clarify, will that occur regardless of the rate of inflation at that point in time? When the Minister selects 1 September for a tax rate to go up it is an appropriate time because the Dáil is in recess. The Dáil is in recess for a number of weeks before and after that date as well and that sometimes creates a little bit of pressure. Is the Minister saying the decision is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tracker Mortgages (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Figures requested from the retail banks and sent to the Oireachtas finance committee showed that Bank of Ireland, AIB, KBC, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank sold 2,315 tracker mortgage accounts which they had overcharged to vulture funds, and nearly 400 of these were sold before they were identified or remediated, either through the tracker mortgage examination or on foot of an FSPO decision....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tracker Mortgages (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome that. Let me be clear that I discussed this with the Central Bank in my recent meeting with it. These individuals, because they have now been identified as being in scope as part of the tracker mortgage examination, have eventually been remediated. However, the point is that, at a point in time, before they were identified and before they had the money restored to them following...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tracker Mortgages (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: They cannot fix. That is the problem.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tracker Mortgages (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Code (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: 74. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will publish the economic analysis undertaken by his Department regarding the retention of the 9% rate of VAT with respect to the hospitality and tourism sectors; if he will outline its findings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11320/23]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Code (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: This comes back to the question that was addressed earlier by Deputies Rose Conway-Walsh and Alan Dillon in regard to the 9% VAT rate. I raised this issue with the Minister on 24 January last. During that discussion, I asked if the Department had undertaken an economic impact assessment regarding the consequences should the rate reduction be extended or the prior rate be reinstated. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Code (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I have received the parliamentary question responses in regard to the assessment. That is very important because there has been a wide public debate in this regard. It is a good debate and it needs to be an informed debate, including in regard to the Department's analysis on whether to extend or continue with the rate. Whether 9% is the appropriate rate for the sector is another question...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tracker Mortgages (7 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: It has become apparent that the retail banks sold to vulture funds thousands of mortgages that were overcharged through the tracker mortgage scandal. Hundreds of these tracker mortgage accounts were sold prior to them receiving remediation through the tracker mortgage examination. The principles of the tracker mortgage examination were very clear. These mortgage holders, having been...