Results 701-720 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you know which of our ... the Irish agencies would have been involved with it?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Cowen, leading up again to the month of the guarantee and so forth, you conferred ... and took advice from Mr. Alan Gray. Were you aware that Mr. Gray ... that a very close business associate of his in his main organisation was also a member of the board of Quinn Insurance?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: No. So you didn't get any-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. You didn't get any special insight into the issues relating to Mr. Quinn, the contract for difference for ... CFOs or that as a result of that connection?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Right. Mr. Cowen, you said in relation to the ... you wanted advice on the economy in July of 2008 and you asked Mr. Drury to assemble a number of people in that regard, and that happened in the Druids Glen. Can you tell us, or share with us, any insights that you received at that meeting with regard to the situation in the Irish economy and the challenges that were facing the economy, and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. And at that very time, Mr. Cowen, the issues of toxic debt internationally and, for example, the sub-prime crisis, the Freddie Mac, the Fannie Mae, those issues would have been quite prominent, which related to the financial situation internationally and the banking situation internationally, could it be possible really to have such a discussion on the economy without a major reference...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: In retrospect now, Mr. Cowen, Mr. Drury assembled for you a panel, a majority of which were associated with Anglo Irish Bank, whose share price had collapsed disastrously a few months before, whose model was built on extensive property speculation, that was on the verge of nationalisation, that eventually cost the taxpayer €35 billion. On reflection, do you wish that you had been...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And, Mr. Cowen, on the night of the guarantee itself the bankers - in evidence here - said that the meeting ... if you could just clarify, by the way ... in your statement it would seem that this was a meeting that had been organised anyway. But Mr. Gleeson of Anglo Irish Bank said it was a meeting that was specifically requested?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Allied Irish Bank. Mr. Gleeson said it was a meeting specifically requested by the ... themselves along with-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----Bank of Ireland, and Mr. Gleeson said that it was mainly to discuss, to quote, the request of the Government "was to discuss ... dramatically deteriorating international situation, the apparently dire straits in which Anglo found itself and the possible repercussions of Anglo's imminent collapse". Was the meeting called as a result of the ... of the bankers, specifically to meet them?...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And then, Mr. Cowen, finally, because of time, Mr. Cardiff, in evidence, did say that you surprised him quite early on, I'll just quote that: I had expected of course that we would discuss guarantees for banks among the options for consideration ... – indeed, by then I thought that some guarantees were inevitable. But the Taoiseach raised the issue of a broad pre-emptive guarantee...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. But, Mr. Cowen, with respect, you had ... you-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Just, can I just give the figure? The figure that Merrill Lynch had given the Government was that INBS had €11.7 billion out in loans, that it faced a write-down of anything between 30% and 60% which would be between €3.6 billion and €7 billion, and Goldman Sachs said that it had regulatory capital of €1.8 billion. It was clearly insolvent on the night of the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, thanks. Mr. Cowen, when the national recovery plan was drawn up in early November 2010 by your Government, was that drawn up and tailored to the expectations of a troika bailout?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, the terms of it, Mr. Cowen, is what I mean. There was ... there is a famous or ... well, a famous Trichet letter of 19 November, but there is an earlier letter from Trichet to Brian Lenihan on 15 October and it's in your core booklet, page ... Vol. 5, page 31-32. But the last paragraph on page 32 is to quote Mr. Trichet, "As I told you, a key element of the monitoring by the Governing...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. But this ... well, the structural programme, it doesn't say, but what is being demanded essentially is the type of austerity that you implemented. So, were you ... did you draw up that programme in the expectation that you would be reliant on the troika and, therefore, that you would go along with what they were demanding?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: And then, Mr. Cowen, the letter of 19 November from Mr. Trichet to Mr. Lenihan, were you quickly made aware of this letter?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Did you see it in any way as an economically threatening letter from the ECB?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Cowen, Mr. Trichet was demanding that you essentially bail out the banks but funding taxpayers' money in. And in ... then, in the second last paragraph, "I'm sure ... you are aware that a swift response is needed before markets open next week". Did you see that as him trying to blackmail the Irish Government to panic ... into a decision? And did you consider threatening the ECB back,...