Results 521-540 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

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

Joe Higgins: Can we look at the ... the Allied Irish Bank document that I've just put up there? And this is a review by AIB in relation to the amounts of lending from 1998 to 2008, and you see there that general loans and advances increased by 330% in AIB, 325% in Bank of Ireland, Anglo 1,950%. Now property advances, which is the next series - 935% at AIB, 2,884% in Bank of Ireland, and 2,155% in Anglo,...

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

Joe Higgins: Mr. Begg, the price of a home, we had evidence here, for an ordinary working person from '96 to 2006 increased each year by the equivalent of the average industrial wage; each year. Were you screaming about that as a worker's representative in the inside of the Central Bank?

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

Joe Higgins: Yes, well, obviously-----

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

Joe Higgins: Mr. Begg, you would have related that, I'm sure, then to the exponential explosion in lending by the ... the banks. The mortgage going to 35 to 40 years, even for young people, being absolutely shackled and saddled, but you - and Mr. Dunne, indeed - you were on the board of the Central Bank, what did you do to try to stop it?

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

Joe Higgins: Did you consider retiring ... resigning at any time from the board because there wasn't progress being made in the interests of controlling the ... house prices, for example?

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

Joe Higgins: Okay.

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

Joe Higgins: Could I ask you both then, gentlemen, in relation to the 2007 financial stability report, would you say it's fair to say that it was a report that was at variance, manifestly, with the reality of what was happening in the property market at the time?

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

Joe Higgins: Well, Mr. Honohan, the Governor of the Central Bank said in his report, "The central conclusion of the 2007 FSR regarding a likely "soft landing" for the housing market does not appear to have been based on specific quantitative evidence or analysis." And he says further, "quantitative analytical evidence was not provided in support of the key conclusion [...][of] a soft landing." And,...

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

Joe Higgins: Mr. Dunne, just in relation to the same point, but also Governor Honohan says that: [M]any participants - at all levels - in the [financial stability reports] drafting process have indicated that [...] highly "nuanced" messages conveyed [to them] reflected an institutional desire at senior levels in the organisation to adopt a cautious approach [...] This message was conveyed to staff...

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

Joe Higgins: This is Governor Honohan's report, I've quoted from two or three different pages which I don't have time to bring up, Chair, but what I've said are quotes from the Governor's report. Were you aware of this, Mr. Dunne, of pressure on the staff essentially to modify and tone down, perhaps, fears they had about where the property bubble was going?

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

Joe Higgins: Well, were they compromising the truth then, Mr. Dunne?

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

Joe Higgins: Were they compromising the truth?

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

Joe Higgins: No, but you seemed ... I'm just trying to tease this out ... in final, Chairman ... that you seem to say, and, indeed, it's in your statement already, the same point that you just made there.

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

Joe Higgins: But are you saying that they hid the truth - the real truth - for fear of spooking the so-called markets?

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

Joe Higgins: But does that suggest, Mr. Dunne-----

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

Joe Higgins: Just one question gentlemen. You have been asked and other witnesses about the effect of a relationship of social partnership to the crisis of the banks. Now, social partnership would say that working people represented by their trade unions are supposed to be partners with big business, represented by their organisations and Government. But in relation to that evidence before this...

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

Joe Higgins: Well, why didn't ... did it work for the young people who were saddled with 40-year mortgages and are now in negative equity because of the profiteering that went on manifestly and objectively by sections of the industry?

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

Joe Higgins: Mr. Mulryan, I'd like to explore with you, under one of the one of the terms of reference of the banking inquiry, 3(b)(ii), "relationships between State authorities, political parties, elected representatives, supervisory authorities, banking institutions and the property sector". Now, in your introduction, Mr. Mulryan, you say the land bank is the key to future business planning. And you...

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

Joe Higgins: Yes. And one of the most prominent auctioneers locally, Dooley solicitors ... or auctioneers, brought the land to you, your partner was another developer, Mr. Sean Dunne, and then you set about see ... getting planning permission. Okay. And in 2002 you got planning permission, register reference No. 14910, and 015318, and one of those permissions was for up to 1,500 homes. And what was...

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

Joe Higgins: Okay. And you say in your statement "securing a feasible planning permission", but that site was landlocked and you needed Wicklow County Council to give permission to build roads through a 20-acre site that was owned by it, which was earmarked for social housing. So how did you go about unlocking that problem?