Results 7,261-7,280 of 36,133 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: What is the bank’s rationale for treating its existing customers in this way compared to new customers? How does Bank of Ireland defend the discrimination that it is engaging in? Does Mr. Kelly agree that it is discriminatory, in that existing customers cannot get a better product that new customers can avail of?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Can Mr. Kelly explain something to the committee in simple terms. For example, I am a customer of Bank of Ireland, and I actually have a mortgage with the bank and it is fixed. Let us imagine that Bernard is a new customer. Explain why the bank would offer Bernard a better rate than me when I have been with the bank for the past 15 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The key thing, however, is that the bank is not going to give me the product that it will offer Bernard, which has a lower interest rate. Why it the bank doing that to me and to hundreds of thousands of other customers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I am aware of that but the bank's board has this in place now. This is not about me personally but I am just using this example to try to simplify the issue here. The board has made this decision now. Will Mr. Kelly explain to the committee how the board justifies offering Bernard a reduced interest rate in a type of product that is not available to me who has a mortgage with Bank of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. It is the last question but I have to interrupt. We have heard that. The bank is keeping all that under review and it is going to write to us and all the rest. However, in the letter the bank writes to me it is not going to offer me the product it offered Deputy Durkan, which is a reduced rate that could save the bank's existing customers a lot of money. Why is the bank...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Under review.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Maybe at the next review the banks should end the discriminatory practice against its existing customers and respect the loyalty they have to the bank and give them the same product it is offering new customers. That is all I will say. I thank the Chairman.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The June board meeting. Were any officials or representatives of the Department of Finance present at that board meeting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Did Bank of Ireland do an analysis of the vulnerable customers who were using branches that it decided to close?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: There is no reason for it. Unless the customer wants to give money to Bank of Ireland for the craic, is there any sound financial reason why a person should have a mortgage at a variable rate with Mr. Kelly’s bank, when there are significant savings to be made? I say that because we know that this happens in insurance, in mortgages and elsewhere, where people, unfortunately, have a...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. I will pick up on some points, starting with IFAC and then on to the ESRI. Mr. Barnes expects a surplus of €4.5 billion this year. Is that correct?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: That is taking on board the €2.5 billion contingency fund put into the budget last year. That would be spent.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: To summarise, if the Government spends €2.5 billion on one-off cost-of-living measures between now and the end of the year, IFAC still projects a €4.5 billion surplus this year.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The stance the Government set out last year in terms of expenditure would be kept.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: It would stick to that but the big difference is that instead of being €8.3 billion in deficit, we would be €4.5 billion in surplus. That would be a turnaround of close to €13 billion to the better.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. The Minister stood up on the floor and said the Government expected a budget deficit next year of €8 billion and could not go back to the situation of "If we have it, we spend it". That was an issue. We had to reduce the deficit and there was a pathway there. We have seen a bonanza and a €13 billion turnaround, yet IFAC says the Government should not do anything more...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I will come on to permanent measures, but this point concerns one-off measures.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is that always the case? Say we do not do as Mr. Barnes suggests and just use the €2.5 billion; say we use €4 billion but it is properly targeted. If you offset the price increases in energy for low-income deciles, you are not creating inflationary pressure. It is only if you do what the Government did the last time, which was 90% untargeted, that you create inflationary pressure.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: How does the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council arrive at the view that €2.5 billion is the appropriate figure for one-off measures? Is it just because that was announced last year, before we had a cost-of-living crisis, or has it carried out assessments as to the impact of this crisis on these families?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (7 Sep 2022)

Pearse Doherty: How will it impact domestic demand, which we have seen contracting over the last while? There is also talk of a potential recession and so forth.