Results 5,981-6,000 of 10,460 for speaker:Gerry Horkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I am aware that it is quite technical but Mr. Butler is saying that by law they were told to do the opposite of what they would normally do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I accept that. I am not sure that everybody watching this would be as familiar with what is going on, but there is a difference between accounting standards and company law. Accounting standards are the rules that the bodies implement and one would expect them to try to adhere to company law at all times. Accounting standards are not law, however. Is the problem with IAS 39 or with some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: So the law is not the problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: The accountants said they would like the law to be ignored or changed so that the standard is then legal-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: -----and they just went off and adhered to the standard, which is not legal, as opposed to adhering to the law. It is not the law's problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Nobody pursued people who were breaking the law, or not complying with the law.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: The accountants went off and said they did not like the law. I am trying to interpret Mr. Butler's words and he can correct me if I have picked them up wrong. The accountants did not like the laws that were there and they created new standards that are in conflict with the law. They prepared accounts and signed off on accounts in compliance with the standards, which are not legal. Who...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Did that office ever do that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Clearly, as the witnesses have said, there is much conflict of interest and vested interest. If a person does something illegal and nobody stops that person from doing it, then he or she is at fault for breaking the law. The regulator, however, who should have gone in and said that the law cannot be broken, seems to have been asleep at the wheel and knowingly allowed accounting firms to not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: So the answer is not about changing the law. We are happy with the law and we do not want the law to be changed to adhere with a standard where one can conceal losses. The problem is corporate enforcement and the regulators not clamping down on people. Is Mr. Butler suggesting that the regulators are not doing this as they wanted to turn a blind eye, because if they started to enforce this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: -----and if the losses were recognised immediately then the banks were insolvent, and all of the promissory notes and other aspects would needed to have been equity injections rather than loans, with the consequent difference to losses and so on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: To which wrong advice exactly is Mr. Butler referring?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Have they now admitted this was wrong?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: So they are finally getting around to saying what we have just discussed for the past ten minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Mr. Bush was a member of the urgent issues task force of the Accounting Standards Board. Is it correct to say that the FRC was a self-governing set-up that was paid for by its members or was it funded by the State?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: A voluntary levy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: We have a voluntary contribution scheme for schools in Ireland and it sounds a little like that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Was most of the funding from ICAEW members?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: What was the breakdown of the funding to the FRC from the bodies or the accounting institutes, which ultimately were the members, relative to other companies?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters Relating to the Banking Sector (Resumed): Pensions and Investment Research Consultants Ltd (28 May 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Who paid for that?