Results 481-500 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Why should ... why was the taxpayer then lumbered with picking up the debts that you borrowed from private banks?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you understand why ordinary people out there, who have suffered massively as a result of the crash, with the austerity, for example, the unemployment, the forced emigration, do you understand why they feel very, very bitter towards developers and bankers who were central to this?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. O'Reilly, there was a developer in here yesterday who said that he was a victim - a victim of the whole situation that developed. Do you see yourself as a victim?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Just to clarify the quote, Chair. Page 2, "Founded in 1989, Castlethorn Construction is one of Ireland's most successful residential property developers". Just for-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Well, I did. So-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but would you agree, Mr. O'Reilly, that you mightn't have that level but you're going in that direction, certainly by making a statement like that. Mr. O'Reilly, can I ask you-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Just two very short questions, I'll put them together because I'm out of-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. You refer in page 8 of your statement that given the risks involved, lenders sometimes lay down key milestones where finance was issues for site acquisition, performance milestones, etc. Can I just ask you in a general way if that was commonplace for the type of lend that you were involved in and if that was commonplace practice? You've gone into it in some detail but just to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Right.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, gentlemen. Mr. Dunne, could I just ask you first, perhaps, if you could outline the process surrounding your appointment as a board member to the Central Bank, just, in relation to how you were approached? Was there a nomination of selection process, or a ... and then, later, a renomination, extension of tenure process, please?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: So, you were appointed to the board of the Financial Regulator then, in 2003, you were on board of the Central Bank and of the Regulator.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Now, you say in your statement, Mr. Dunne, in page 1, "I believe that my role within IBEC and perhaps more especially in the successful conclusion and operation of the merged organisation [I take it that that's the Federated Union of Employers and the Confederation of Irish Industry, becoming IBEC] was a significant factor in my being asked to join the board of the Irish Financial...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but then you say, a little bit further on, Mr. Dunne, "I was appointed to the Board of the Financial Regulator - the Authority as it was called - as a non-executive director in 2003 and am therefore unable to comment from an IBEC perspective on any of the issues raised in the Committee's terms of reference for my appearance before it." There's a, kind of, a contradiction there, I would-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Mr. Dunne, both the regulatory authority and the Central Bank board had some common membership. Can you remember how many members of the regulator board was also on the Central Bank?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay, and in the ... what ... why were they on the Central Bank board and what did they bring to the board?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And then, in the course of the 2000s, Mr. Dunne, in what is commonly now understood to be the blowing up of a very big bubble in property and lending, were you aware of the extent of lending by banks for the property sector?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Was that discussed in great detail on either of the two boards?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: What were ... what was the feeling in relation to this?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (22 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: At the same time, Mr. Dunne, you were a vastly experienced person in business. I mean, would you have been aware of the experience in the Scandinavian countries, for example, in the 80s and 90s, of a significant bubble and bank crash that caused quite considerable problems for the peoples of those countries?