Results 6,421-6,440 of 10,460 for speaker:Gerry Horkan

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I, too, would like to be associated with the comments of Senator Conway on Michael Ryan. It is an absolutely tragic loss for his wife and children and his mother, who spoke amazingly well yesterday on television and on the radio. She showed great composure in acknowledging the great work he had been doing. I know Lahinch and Ennistymon quite well. I had occasion yesterday to meet the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I am aware of some of them. We sit on a committee together. I said I wished her luck. I did not say she could not do it. We all hope Brexit pans out in the least worst fashion possible. Perhaps if this deal does not happen we will go for a second vote and it will all have been a bad dream. However, I am not sure we will get that far too soon, either. On the issue Senator Humphreys...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I am just asking for it now.I may not have been here in the past but I am here for the moment. We should look at the merits of a building regulator and having somebody to examine commercial, residential and other units to ensure they are built to the specifications in their planning permissions. It is unfair on people who spent a significant amount of money to buy units only to discover...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I thank Mr. Crowley for his opening statement andinitial observations. A lot of points have been covered. For the benefit of those who may be watching the proceedings of the committee, will Mr. Crowley explain who exactly his organisation represents in the banking and payments industry? I presume Mr. Crowley's organisation represents the five pillar banks but I do not know who else is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Would it be fair to say that this cultural report will stretch across all the organisation's banking members?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: That was the point I was trying to get at, namely, that the SEAR and all the various regimes, the enhancements to the current fitness and probity regime, the unified enforcement process and all of that, will be taken on board by all these people which is a good thing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Obviously the term "senior executive" has to start somewhere. How do we define what or where in that respect? Approximately 23,000 people are working in the banking industry in Ireland. Many of them are doing fairly ordinary jobs where they would be very much exposed to the customers but they would not be necessarily making the types of decisions that caused some of the problems we had...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I thank Mr. Crowley for outlining that. We are discussing this, as Deputy Michael McGrath outlined, because of the bad behaviour what went wrong. We would not have set up a banking culture board if everything had worked fine, everybody was making lots of money and nobody had been affected by the banks' bad behaviour. It is in any bank's interest that its employees are fit and capable to do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: However, in terms of people being fit and capable to do their jobs, the banks had a culture of lending money without making sure that it was available to come back in. They had a bonus culture at the time of rewarding people for the money that left an institution as opposed to the money that came back into it as a result of wise investments and so on. Much of that has changed but a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: There were people in jobs and high-profile cases where people were suing RTÉ for what it said about them. Effectively, those people were being incentivised in junior roles to do tasks that borderline met the regulations. They were very much focused on the bottom line at the time. That culture has significantly changed. It is not necessarily Mr. Crowley's job to change it but we have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Mr. Crowley made a point about the balance between executive and non-executive directors. I am not sure anyone else has covered it. Supposedly the purpose of non-executive directors is to challenge. Senior executives who are very much hands-on are there all the time. I am sure many people in business regard board meetings as something they have to get through and put up with. They feel...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Mr. Crowley talked about improvement and being protective. One of the points he made is that we could end up with people trying to avoid decisions. Members of these Houses, and certainly members of the Cabinet, might sometimes be accused of avoiding all decisions on the basis that if they make a decision they will get something wrong. To a certain extent, Mr. Crowley is saying that with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: It might be slightly easier in here than in the banks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I thank Mr. Tobin for his opening remarks. I note his comment that he sees this as a listening exercise. No doubt the Chairman and I will have a few comments to make. Mr. Tobin acknowledges that this report was as a result of the work of this committee on the tracker mortgages. We would not be having a discussion on banking culture, were it not so blatantly shown to be toxic in terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: That is set to be done today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I do not know why Mr. Tobin has said "unfortunately". Surely he delights in the fact that he is coming in here to myself, the Chairman and the other members of the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: Fair enough. I will take that. I do acknowledge that the world is moving on in terms of going cashless, tapping and all the rest. I know of owners of pubs and restaurants who are talking about going fully cashless and a lot of places are similar. The banks need to bring some customers on a journey in terms of technology because these people are less comfortable with debit or credit cards,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: This is not a new concept. In the old days we had a Minister for transport who on one hand was the Minister for transport and tourism but was the 100% shareholder in Aer Lingus on the other. A balance had to be struck between protecting the airline, which was a big deal back then, and promoting tourism and fostering new airlines, which Ryanair was at the time. Chinese walls are fine but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: I mean leverage, influence or whatever one wants to call it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: A Future Framework for Accountability in the Banking Sector: Discussion (12 Mar 2019)

Gerry Horkan: How important is culture to an external investor?