Results 4,941-4,960 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Senator referred to "criminal plundering".
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: Senator Cannon should not lecture me on morality.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is 30%.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: Those reports were inaccurate.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: I did not rule it out of order.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Ceann Comhairle.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: I thank Senators for their wide-ranging and informative contributions on this debate. It has been a very interesting debate and I was glad to follow closely a number of contributors and have had a full report of what others said. Senator O'Reilly suggested we were acting in the face of all evidence. I would like to eliminate certain countries from our debate before I deal with the merits of...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: He may be a Nobel prize winner, but he does not agree with a single step the US Government has taken with regard to the banking crisis, despite the fact the US Government has succeeded in repairing its crisis.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: Let us leave Professor Stiglitz out of this debate as well. He accused us of being criminals. Perhaps I was a little unfair on Senator Cannon and, earlier, on Senator Doherty when he said it was a criminal act to introduce NAMA, because it was Professor Stiglitz who started that particular line of debate here. It is an ill-founded line of debate. Having got rid of Japan, France, Professor...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: We do not want a general debate on the economy. I want to address the issues. However, the live register trend in October showed a decrease in unemployment. Perhaps one swallow does not make a summer, but it is encouraging that we see it.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: Since last April, the trend in mortgage arrears has shown consistent improvement. This does not mean we do not have the important issue of home repossessions to address, but we have put measures in place to deal with the issue and have applied the regulator's guidelines to all financial institutions. We are committed to improvements in the programme for Government. We have a new regulator...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: Coming back to where we are at as an economy, I have referred to home repossessions and joblessness, and Senator Healy Eames referred in her concluding remarks to the need for credit for businesses. These are fundamental matters, but to address them we need a plan. Every economist of any repute in this country has made it clear that the plan must address our competitiveness, which...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: The continuance of that state of affairs poses a far greater threat to our children than any NAMA proposal.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: We will have an opportunity in the budget to address that issue and make the necessary decisions.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: I am addressing the issues raised in the debate. Speaker after speaker spoke of the threat to the taxpayer posed by NAMA.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: There is far more serious danger for the taxpayer and future generations, namely, their exposure from the amount of borrowing in which we are now engaging. That borrowing is not being engaged in to fund the banks. It is being engaged in because the gap between our current receipts and expenditure is so wide, and that is nothing to do with the banking system.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: If we got it wrong, and I am happy to accept responsibility for a mistake as a Government representative in that regard, we all got it wrong, because Fine Gael advocated even higher expenditure and lower taxes throughout that period.
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: We are all agreed, I take it, having dealt with the wider economic issues in the debate. I have to give the viewpoint of the Government there. For many years all of the parties advocated higher expenditures and lower taxation. We now have a very serious public financial problem, which poses a far greater threat to this country than the matter we have been discussing this evening, and at...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: That is a fair point and we can argue it in greater detail, but on balance the Government and I have formed the view that insuring the loans would not reduce the uncertainty we need to eliminate in the banking system. The argument will be made about nationalisation. Senator Ross gave the most elegant exposition of that argument in the course of the debate, although Senator Bacik and the...
- Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)
Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is not only a matter of owning Anglo Irish Bank. It is not only a matter of having an effective 25% stake in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks. It is not only a matter of having a provision in this legislation whereby the two building societies come under effective Government control. There is already a 55% stake in these institutions and the Government has made clear since last...