Results 8,541-8,560 of 35,567 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It would be naive to think that just because the IMF, European ministers and the ESM are involved in these negotiations, they will always have the interests of the member state seeking to access credit. They may genuinely think they have the interests of the member state, but they will be coming at it from their own position and views. We have experienced this. Was the Minister's...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: We have gone through the credit lines provided for in this legislation, which would be open for member states to apply to if they met criteria, which I believe to be outdated. In each of those credit lines conditionality is negotiated with the ESM and, in some cases, the IMF. Some of the conditionality will be corrective and some will relate to meeting the criteria. Let me just go back...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: We want to get the money back, whether it is from lending to a member state or the banks, but the money will be provided by the ESM through the Single Resolution Fund. There will be strict conditionality if a member state looks for it. That could be profound, especially in the context of a memorandum of understanding, MOU. What conditions will be placed on financial institutions in terms...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It is clear the Minister was a lead negotiator on this. Did it ever cross his mind that we should impose conditionality on the banks, as we do on member states? He had a key and prominent role in negotiating this agreement.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Member states will have to pay the money back with interest, just as the banks will have to ensure the Single Resolution Fund is made up of bank contributions. However, member states, using taxpayers' money, will step in if that is not sufficient at a point in time, but will be paid back. There are no structural or other conditions that could be applied to member states if they run into...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: How much of a contribution is Ireland making to the ESM? Is the Minister suggesting that the ESM will not lend to the SRF which will lend to banks?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: The money-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: -----by the member states which is then raised on the financial markets.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, but the point I am making is that the money which goes from the ESM to the SRF is coming from the ESM and the ESM is made up of capital contributions that are made from member states - taxpayers' money - and then leveraged on the international markets.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Therefore, in circumstances where the SRF funds are depleted, taxpayers' money flows into the banks in the case of a bailout but only after bondholders have been burned, the SRF has been depleted and they need a credit line from the ESM.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: I want to be clear that it is not that I have an issue with this. The actual tiered structure of how to deal with banking failure is appropriate. We are getting to the point where we should have been, which is what Sinn Féin had articulated. The Minister and his colleagues lambasted us and now they cheerlead the fact that bondholders should be burned in a scenario where a financial...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, but let me say in a friendly way that the Minister misled the committee earlier on because the point is that there are tiered-down, waterfall systems where bondholders will be burned in the first instance and then the fund that is made up of banking contributions - the SRF - would be used. However, after that it is taxpayers' money: it is contributions from the ESM to the SRF that will...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Exactly. That is what the legislation is. The legislation is to make provision for that. The point is-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: We know that. Sure, I know the legislation. However, the Minister is making the point that taxpayers' money would not be used in terms of a contribution to the financial institutions. That is factually inaccurate. It will only happen after all of the other safeguards are used but that is exactly what the legislation is. The legislation is about that last safeguard to ensure a bank would...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: The letter of intent, then, would not include corrective measures but, rather, would outline on the part of a member state how it would comply with the criteria. What negotiation would arise in that regard?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It is not about the conditions. There is nothing in this agreement which suggests the conditions would not undermine public services or threaten economic recovery. What we saw with the MOU to which we in Ireland were subject was that public services were undermined. We are still dealing with the consequences of that. Gross economic recovery was impacted as a result of the period of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. First of all, the Minister's logic-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: -----in some of this is way out there. The Minister made the argument in his last contribution that-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (25 Nov 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Let me finish with this point.