Results 801-820 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: But, on the other hand, Ms. Nolan, from evidence we have here in front of the inquiry, we have shown and put it to witnesses that, on the night of the guarantee, particularly in the case of Irish Nationwide, it was insolvent in view of the figures that both Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs had presented.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Well, as a senior official and looking back at the evidence now, do you think that a different view should have been taken of INBS clearly from the figures we had, but also Anglo in relation to their state of solvency on the night of the guarantee?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Right. Thank you.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Ms Nolan, on page 4 of your opening statement, you say:: "The State received shareholdings in the banks in return for its capital and for the continuing banks this investment can be recovered over time by selling the shareholdings." And you go on to say that the long-term losses essentially arise from INBS and Anglo. Can I query and interrogate that somewhat with you for a minute or two?...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: No, it's .... I don't think so. Well, let's not query about-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: But it's a hope rather than-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: And what about the extra €2.8 billion that, according to NAMA-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Well, NAMA suggested that they overpaid the banks by €10 billion-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----by contrast with what the market would pay at the time.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: So what timescale are you working on in relation to Allied Irish Banks? And you're suggesting that it would be re-privatised to make back the-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Yes. And, Ms Nolan, in view of the disaster that befell our people as a result of the banking crisis related to the drive for profit maximisation and competition-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----what would your view be of, instead of giving it back to private interests again seeking profit maximisation, of maintaining a publicly owned banking services devoted to social good, social investment, rather than private profit maximisation?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Thank you.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. McCreevy, we've had evidence to the tribunal or the inquiry here and statistics to show that between 1996 and 2006, the price of a home each year increased for ten years in succession by the equivalent of the average industrial wage. That's the equivalent of the average industrial wage in an increase every year. Eight out of those ten years, Mr. McCreevy, you were Minister for Finance....
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Were you aware of the huge pressure that this put on the young generation of first-time buyers faced with those demands from developers and builders and having to go to mortgages of 35 and 40 years at very onerous rates? Were you aware of this?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: But, Mr. McCreevy, is it the case that a huge part of that massive increase was due to the speculation and profiteering in the building land on which the houses were built? And for example, an 11-acre site in Stillorgan was bought in 2000 by a group of very wealthy individuals, sat on for four years and sold for €85 million in 2004. A €53 million speculative gain on which...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: Well, it may have been due to the fact that the banks were shovelling out billions to speculators-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----but let's move forward a little bit, Mr. McCreevy, because property developers, many of whom were among the biggest loans that were transferred to NAMA at an enormous cost to society ... and I am asking this under the relationship between Government, Oireachtas, banking and property sectors, many of those biggest property developers that went to NAMA funded your party, Fianna Fáil,...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----the property levels-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (1 Jul 2015)
Joe Higgins: -----that were happening?