Results 8,061-8,080 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: In regard to the expression "customer deposit", I understand a customer account can be held by an actual person or a company or corporation. There is no particular——

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Deputy Burton rightly points out that most of us — all of us in this House, I hope — are concerned with little old ladies who deposit funds in banks, but their customers include corporations and, on that basis, it is described as a customer in that respect.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: If Deputy Burton studies my reply, she will see I am advised that Anglo Irish Bank placed funds with Irish Life & Permanent and that a non-bank subsidiary company of Irish Life & Permanent then deposited a similar amount in Anglo Irish Bank as a customer deposit.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Deputy has explained it herself.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: In regard to major wholesale deposits by other banks, I am glad the Deputy has acknowledged their existence at Anglo Irish Bank because, of course, it is one of the reasons it is essential to safeguard the banking system because of the degree of default which would happen were the bank to have been let go to the wall at any stage.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: A number of good questions have been put by Deputy Kenny which give me the opportunity to put matters on the record of the House. First, there was a Cabinet meeting which arrived at the decision to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank. The various newspaper reports that it was a purely incorporeal meeting are inaccurate. The matter was of some urgency and the Taoiseach was in Japan but a meeting...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I dealt with that matter earlier. The decision, therefore, was not an incorporeal decision of the Cabinet. It was a full decision of the Government but, naturally, the Taoiseach was kept apprised of developments in the matter up to the time of the Cabinet meeting. In regard to the suggestion of criminal activity, I was speaking in regard to corporate malpractice generally in Anglo Irish...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: However, as I have said already, in the report this matter was not viewed at that stage as a risk factor; it was viewed as an issue to be pursued.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I was advised in the course of January that it was viewed as a matter of a more serious character. That was one of the issues I took into account in deciding to recommend to my colleagues that the institution should be nationalised.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: If Deputy Morgan will allow me a little time, I should have said in reply to Deputy Bruton that the PricewaterhouseCoopers report contains 120 pages on each financial institution, so it is a very long report and it was essential that I be briefed on parts of it. I worked my way through substantial parts of it and, to be honest, there were large parts of it which I wanted to forget because...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: That course of action was not an option for the Government. The Government attempted to maintain this institution as a going concern on a capitalised basis with 75% control by the State. That did not command market confidence. In the absence of that measure commanding market confidence and in the possession of information concerning the fragility of its liquidity and corporate governance...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: There is no question of a constitutional challenge to the legislation.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: How much time is left?

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I would be very pleased to do so. However, I will first address Deputy Costello's questions. As I indicated in my reply, I instructed my officials that the new board should deal with this matter. To date we have not received a report from the Financial Regulator on this matter. Deputy Costello will appreciate that the old board of Anglo Irish Bank stayed in operation until the institution...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Mr. O'Connor, who became chairman in late December, liaised with my Department on the matters under discussion and they were brought to my attention. He was dealing with these matters. However, there was considerable uncertainty about the corporate future of Anglo Irish Bank until the nationalisation Bill was enacted. I advised my officials to raise the matter with the board members upon...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Mr. O'Connor, in whom I had full confidence, was dealing with the matter. Once I was apprised of the matter, I suggested to my officials that the board was obliged to deal with this matter in conjunction with the regulator.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: That is why the board proposed to put these matters into the public domain upon the publication of the annual report. I refer to Deputy Rabbitte's questions. He raised the question of the meeting on 29 September and the Government decision to guarantee the banking system. There was a concern on 29 September that a nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank would have a knock-on effect on the...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I received no representations from the bank other than one representation on the sole occasion on which I met Mr. FitzPatrick, prior to 30 September, in which he suggested he would be interested in taking over the Irish Nationwide Building Society.

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I discussed this matter with my officials and suggested it might not be a wise course of action at the time. That was the sole occasion since my appointment as Minister for Finance on which I met Mr. FitzPatrick. I met him, of course, on two subsequent occasions, after 30 September, with my officials, to discuss the future of the institution. It is important to recall the focus of the...

Financial Transactions (11 Feb 2009)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: In respect of mortgaging the country's future——